Who loses? Federal grant funds are at stake after investigators concluded the New York State Museum improperly used $597,624 in federal awards.
The finding comes from an inquiry by the US Department of the Interior's Office of Inspector General, and was reported by the Times-Union. The OIG reviewed grant activity tied to the museum’s participation in STATEMAP, the state geological mapping program funded through the US Geological Survey, and focused on the 2020 to 2022 grant period.
The probe found the museum submitted grant charges that should have been matched one to one by the institution, but did not reflect actual work on STATEMAP. According to the report, museum officials directed staff to record inflated hours on time sheets for STATEMAP work. The OIG also identified two employees whose salaries were billed to the grant despite not working on the program. Those practices allowed the museum to withdraw federal funds it was not entitled to.
The OIG report, released in late May, makes the agency’s assessment public and ties the questioned expenditures directly to the US Geological Survey awards secured for state geological mapping. The Times-Union published the OIG’s conclusions on Wednesday.
The report does not appear in the material reviewed here to outline subsequent enforcement steps or remedies, but its release places the museum’s grant accounting under formal scrutiny. The finding establishes an official record that the museum billed the STATEMAP grants in ways the OIG deemed improper, a development that will shape any administrative or financial follow-up tied to those federal awards.
