Targets keep moving, but we can’t miss

We were tempted to just stick to our guns about guns.
In light of a legislative audit last week that reported our state government doesn’t know how many guns it has, that looked like an easy target.
After all, that report ominously warned missing weapons and poor inventory control of state-owned firearms pose “a substantial risk of harm to the public safety and liability to the state of West Virginia.”
The audit noted that 15 agencies listed nearly 5,000 firearms on the state’s accounting software (wvOASIS). However, 58 other agencies, ranging from the Parkways Authority to the Public Service Commission, are exempt from reporting firearms. Ditto for colleges and universities.
Furthermore, no state agency is required to have an accurate inventory of its ammunition, which is a best practice at the federal level.
But after carefully taking aim at this lapse in state oversight, the targets started and never stopped moving.
Within hours after that audit’s release, federal prosecutors announced they were following up on a state audit on the use of federal disaster relief funds.
The bottom line in that audit is that only about $400,000 of more than $3 million that one community (Richwood) received for flood recovery is accounted for. The rest is not.
There has also been intense criticism of the slow pace of how the Justice administration has spent more than $150 million in federal flood relief funds.
Then, wouldn’t you know it, a state legislative agency admitted “mistakes were made” that will cost the state more than $1 million.
An audit by the U.S. Justice Department found overpayments of grants the state was not eligible for from the federal Crime Victims Compensation Fund during a two-year period.
Fortunately, most of that mistake can be undone by de-obligating a 2016 grant that has not been spent.
Yet, like most trends, only in December, we noted another series of such lapses by state agencies in 2018 that cost the state millions, too.
They included a nursing home managed by the Department of Veterans Assistance owing vendors $5 million in unpaid invoices.
And there was the  Department of Health and Human Resources paying more than $1 million for vacant office space for 32 months.
The Division of Homeland Security and Management also bungled grants so poorly FEMA placed it on manual reimbursement.
Reaching back to 2017, the U.S. Department of Education imposed sanctions on the state’s Title IV funds — Pell grants and subsidized loans.
Our opinions are rarely the result of an itchy trigger finger and instead rely on analysis and deliberation.
But sometimes you just can’t help but want to start shooting  your opinions off  first and ask questions later.