While the Forest Service's recent accounting problems may have grabbed Montana's attention, difficulties with balancing their checkbook is nothing new for the federal agency.

In fact, other than in the past two years, the Forest Service hasn't had a clean audit in the past decade. A report released last year by the General Accounting Office notes that historically, the Forest Service hasn't been able to provide Congress or the public "with a clear understanding of what the Forest Service's 30,000 employees accomplish with the approximately $5 billion the agency receives every year."

And although the federal agency says it is taking significant steps toward resolving accountability problems, the GAO's office said the Forest Service has made "little real progress" and remains years away from implementing a credible accounting system.

Scott Seacat, Montana's legislative auditor, is well aware of the GAO's reports and says the problems identified by the federal agency aren't unique to the Forest Service.

"They've made the same sort of findings for the BLM (Bureau of Land Management) and they had some issues a couple of years ago with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and their accounting system, where they even got shut down," Seacat said. "So it's not uncommon."

But with Montana being billed for $66 million by the Forest Service for a portion of the wildfire fighting costs, particular attention is being paid to that federal agency's bills this year.

Seacat's office is the state's equivalent of the federal GAO, and he has an agreement with that office to audit, every two years, all of the federal money that comes into Montana.

"I have to kind of tell on Montana if the state ever screws up, like if they don't account for the federal money, like grants of FEMA money that comes in," Seacat said.

But on top of that, in light of the questionable accounting in the Forest Service's office on a national basis, the state also has to have processes in place to monitor whether the bills they're receiving from the federal agency are correct.

"The first thing as a state auditor that I look for is whether the state has a system in place to determine whether those bills are legitimate or not," Seacat said. "In the case of the gym equipment, (recently accidentally billed to the state by the Forest Service) was there a control in this case where the people of Montana caught it and said we are not going to pay those bills?

"... In my opinion, I think the system is in place. Whether or not it is working is a separate question."

State Forester Bob Harrington, who heads the DNRC branch that deals with the firefighting bills, believes the current review is adequate. He wasn't aware of the GAO's reports on the Forest Service's accounting problems, but said that because of their experiences getting duplicate or incorrect bills from the Forest Service for firefighting costs, DNRC goes through each and every bill, line by line, to ensure that the charges are appropriate.

This is done first at the individual field offices near where the fires occurred; then by employees within his office in Missoula; and finally by people in the DNRC's main office in Helena.

"We do that because of the history, that every year there have been elements of those bills that were charges that were either mistakenly charged to the fire or weren't legitimate fire costs for us," Harrington said. "This year, I think that as the result of their new (computer) software, there were additional problems."

So far, the state has only reimbursed the Forest Service for almost $400,000 in firefighting costs for the Box Canyon Fire, after DRNC accountants verified the legitimacy of the costs, according to Ann Bauchman, administrator for the DNRC Centralized Services Division.

Harrington said the state won't pay the other firefighting bills until they've been gone over closely by both the state and the federal agency.

"That bill will not be paid until we have the ability to audit a clean summary from them and ensure the charges are appropriate," Harrington said.

Reporter Eve Byron can be reached at 447-4076 or by e-mail at eve.byron@helenair.com