Montana Military Affairs Gets Poor Marks In Audit

Auditors say the Montana Department of Military Affairs does a poor job of managing the federal Homeland Security money it receives.

The findings show that the agency spent about $19 million in federal grant money over the past three years and did not monitor any of the subcontractors for compliance.

In addition, the agency did not monitor the federal stimulus spending to make sure contractors were paying prevailing wages. Plus, the state Disaster and Emergency Service Division was wrongly paying some employees with federal money even though the employees work on state programs.

The auditors found several other issues with the way the agency handles contracts.

Montana Army National Guard Brig. Gen. John Walsh says he is taking the issue seriously and making changes to correct all of the problems.

Associated Press