BLM to Relocate Utah Mustangs from Utah Corrections Program

More than 1,000 Bureau of Land Management (BLM)mustangswill be relocated following a dispute between the federal agency and the Utah Department of Corrections.This decision comes after financial discrepancies were discovered in the program managed by Utah Correctional Industries (UCI), leading to the termination of the Wild Horse Inmate Program at Gunnison Prison.

As of 2014, theBLMmanages about 40,815 horses and 8,394 burros roamingBLM-managed rangeland in 10 Western states. Another 15,779 horses and 195 burros are fed and cared for in short-term holding corrals. Meanwhile, 31,638 horses reside in long-term pastures. Some of theBLM-managed animals receive, by contract, feed and care from the inmates of states' penal systems.

Gus Warr, wild horse and burro specialist and manager of Utah's Wild Horse and Burro Program, said that in 2001BLM-Utah entered into a cooperative agreement with Utah Correctional Industries (UCI), a division of the Utah Department of Corrections. Under that contract, inmates of Utah's Gunnison Prison would house and train the wild horses. In August 2014, 1,126 horses resided at the facility, Warr said. The cooperative agreement allowed theBLMto pay UCI on a per-horse, per-day basis. The agreement also included appropriate provisions and citations that restricted payment to UCI for only allowable costs.

Under theBLM-Utah/UCI agreement, which ran through September 2012, UCI received total payments of more than $5.3 million, according to a written statement provided by theBLM. Due to accounting discrepancies for actual expenditures, theBLMasked the Department of the Interior's Office of the Inspector General (OIG) to conduct an audit of the UCI program. In September 2013, that audit found more than $1 million in questionable costs and more than $900,000 in “unsupported costs” that represented expenditures for proper purposes but “without supporting documentation,” the written statement said.

From October 2013 to March 2014,BLMofficials worked with UCI personnel to address the questionable and unsupported costs and to reduce them to $1,074,732, theBLM's written statement said. The statement said that UCI contended that the reimbursement agreement allowed the Utah corrections agency a “legitimate profit.”

In October 2012,BLM-Utah and UCI entered a new agreement. According to theBLMwritten statement, shortly thereafter UCI submitted a reimbursement request for hay costs totaling $1 million: “Following the issuance of the OIG report, UCI was placed on administrative review to be more closely monitored by the Grants Management Officer," the written statement said. "During the close monitoring of UCI reimbursement requests, the apparent double payment of $1 million in hay costs was discovered.”

“We estimate that the UCI owes theBLMabout $2 million,” Warr said.

Warr said thatBLM-Utah is seeking an independent, outside audit to confirm that figure.

Utah Department of Correction's Deputy Director of Administrative Services Mike Haddon was unavailable for comment on theBLM's statements.

On Sept. 5, Utah Department of Corrections announced that it would terminate its program at Gunnison Prison, Warr said.

Haddon was unavailable for comment.

Warr said theBLMwould relocate the 1,226 horses living at the prison to facilities in Arizona, California, and Nevada.

A Sept. 5 written statement from theBLMread:

TheBLMexpects to relocate the horses within 30 days, Warr said.

Originally Posted By The Horse