Firearms missing, AG reports
Recommendations made to tighten inventory management and security controls in wildlife division
A special report released Thursday by the province’s auditor general has revealed that at least 20 firearms have been lost — and possibly up to 30 more are unaccounted for — in the wildlife division of the Department of Fisheries and Land Resources going back a number of years.
An RCMP investigation into the missing firearms concluded there was no evidence of criminal activity.
Auditor General Julia Mullaley’s report was completed in response to a request for an audit one year ago from the provincial government. The request came a couple of months after the wildlife division was realigned with the Department of Fisheries and Land Resources from the Department of Environment and Climate Change.
Mullaley’s report acknowledges the department has already taken necessary actions — many implemented during the course of the audit — to improve inventory management and security of firearms and ammunition in the wildlife division.
There are a number of recommendations to further improve the system.
“We found a lot of weaknesses with respect to record-keeping,” Mullaley said. “For example, the inventory system was not up to date, it wasn’t accurate, it wasn’t complete, it was missing information.”
One issue was that the division requires a wildlife division asset (WDA) number to be assigned to each firearm upon acquisition. As of October 2017, there were 30 WDA numbers that could not be accounted for in the inventory system.
“The department did a lot of work to try to determine that, and part of the issue was that there were practices in the past where those asset numbers were assigned to non-firearms such as pellet guns, replica guns and starter pistols,” Mullaley said.
“But we don’t know. It is a possible answer to it, but it is not a definitive answer. And at the end of the day, no one could account for the 30 number.”
Other than those 30, there were 20 firearms determined to be lost, and they have been reported to the federal gun registry as such. Another six firearms were recorded at the federal registry, but they could not be found in the inventory.
“Under the federal legislation, any acquisitions or dispositions or any lost items, stolen items,
anything like that has to be reported to the federal registry,” the auditor general noted.
The issue came to light following a regular internal review of inventory processes in March 2017 by the Department of Fisheries and Land Resources. The internal review determined there were anomalies in inventory control.
As of October 2017, according the division’s inventory system, there were 476 firearms in the inventory. That number included 158 functional firearms, 294 non-functional firearms
(used for educational courses throughout the province), 13 firearms without functionality classification and 11 firearms listed as being lost.
There were discrepancies and inaccuracies found in the numbers, so Mullaley’s office was asked to conduct a formal audit into policies and procedures.
The RCMP was also asked to have a look, but Mullaley said the audit and the police investigation were separate.
“The main objective was whether the department had an effective system of controls in place around management and safeguarding of the inventory on firearms, specifically around the wildlife division,” Mullaley said. “The department itself had identified some concerns and it was on that basis that they asked us to come in.
“The main theme was around the lack of internal controls. For example, they did not have any comprehensive policies for inventory management, which are very key when you are in any inventory management process.”