Given the importance Warren County places on the outdoors, a recent audit by Timothy DeFoor, state auditor general, is pretty disappointing.

DeFoor performed an audit of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources that showed the agency did not award all Community Conservation Partnerships Program (C2P2) grants competitively, instead using its own discretion when awarding some grants despite advertising it as a competitive process. The C2P2 program provides federal and state grants to municipalities, non-profit organizations and other community-based organizations for conservation projects.

“We found instances where DCNR executive management made the decision to award grants to applicants who missed application deadlines, funded projects that were ranked lower than others or ignored the ranking altogether,” DeFoor said. “This is very concerning because DCNR’s executive management opened the door to outside pressure and influence in awarding state grants by not solely relying on the advertised process. When management can make its own rules, it diminishes the integrity of a grant program.”

Although the C2P2 grant program is structured and advertised as a competitively awarded grant process, not all C2P2 grants were awarded based on the project evaluation, scoring and ranking process set forth in the program guidelines. DCNR accepted grant applications submitted late and awarded grants for those projects; awarded grants to lower-ranked projects instead of projects ranked higher; and executive management awarded grants for certain projects regardless of internal recommendations and project rankings, suggesting other factors may have impacted those decisions, such as outside influence or pressure.

This is disappointing, because one can only wonder if Warren County had applied for some of this money only to lose out because DCNR officials didn’t follow their program guidelines. We hope DCNR officials follow DeFoor’s recommendations. There are needs throughout the commonwealth that could be addressed through the Community Conservation Partnerships Program – and that money needs to be distributed equitably.