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<br />0023i7 <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />. <br /> <br />protection and recovery opportunity to virtually all 1/ endangered and <br />threatened animals and plants. based solely on the degree of threat <br />evidenced by the "best scientific and commercial data available," In <br />attempting to maintain general biological diversity, the Act does not <br />differentiate between types of species and subspecies; consequently. <br />mammals, snails, and plants. for example, are treated equally under the <br />Act. The Act also does not require that consideration be given to the <br />impact of conserving a particular species or subspecies on ocher species <br />and subspecies in need of protection. <br /> <br />The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service expended about $30 million in each of <br />fiscal years 1987 and 1988 and about $33 million in fiscal year 1989 to <br />administer the Act. From 1981 through 1989, approximately $232 million <br />was appropriated to the Service for endangered species program purposes. <br />These costs included neither funds expended for endangered species <br />purposes from other Service activities such as ecological services and <br />refuges nor funds expended by other Federal agencies to meet their <br />obligations under the Act. The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service has no <br />direct control over endangered species funds expended by other Department <br />of the Interior bureaus or other Federal agencies. Also included within <br />these costs are funds specifically designated by the Congress for <br />expenditure on a relatively few "high priority or visible" species. <br /> <br />OBJECTIVE AND SCOPE <br /> <br />The obj ective of our review was to determine if the U. S. Fish and <br />Wildlife Service had effectively implemented the Endangered Species Act. <br />Our program objective was met, as our review focused on general program <br />administration and selected aspects of listing, consultation, recovery. <br />and Section 6 activities as related to domescic species. Our review <br />covered Service activities during fiscal years 1987 through 1989 and <br />earlier periods as necessary. The audit was conducted at the U,S. Fish <br />and Wildlife Service locations listed in Appendix 2. <br /> <br />Our program review was performed between June 1989 and April 1990 in <br />accordance with the "Government Auditing Standards,lI issued by the <br />Comptroller General of the United States. Accordingly, we included such <br />tests of records and other auditing procedures that were considered <br />necessary under the circumstances. <br /> <br />As part of our review. we evaluated the Service's system of internal <br />controls to the extent we considered necessary to accomplish the audit <br />objective. We noted three major internal control weaknesses: actual <br />employee time was not tracked, internal management reviews were not <br />conducted consistently, and management information systems were <br />inadequate. Recommendations made in the Findings and Recommendations <br />section of this report should help to improve these weaknesses. In <br />addition, we reviewed the Department of the Interior fiscal year 1988 <br /> <br />1/ Except species of the Class Insecta determined "to constitute a pest <br />whose protection under the prOV1S10ns of this Act would present an <br />overwhelming and overriding risk to man." <br /> <br />3 <br />