BRETT FRENCH | bfrench@billingsgazette.com
The sale of Montana’s 300 different hunting, trapping and fishing licenses and permits generated $158 million for Fish, Wildlife & Parks, almost half of the agency’s entire budget.
However, the computer system built in the late 1990s that FWP uses to sell these many licenses, called the Automated Licensing System, is woefully outdated, highlighted by problems with license drawings in 2022 and 2023.
Extensive modifications over time allowed the system to “become the backbone of the agency’s operations,” Deborah Stratman, senior information technology auditor for the Legislative Audit Division, told the Legislative Audit Committee at its Jan. 15 hearing.
“However, to expand this application beyond its original purpose, the agency extensively customized it, creating business processes that are highly specific to ALS and difficult to replicate in commercial, off-the-shelf systems,” she added.
Recognizing the problem, in 2019 the Legislature approved funding for a new system that six years later has still not been replaced.
Dangers for licensing
The recently released Legislative Audit Division’s review of FWP’s information technology systems indicated that dangers exist with the current licensing system, noting some of the sources of data being fed into the Automated Licensing System “are at risk of being permanently lost, which could affect the agency’s ability to accurately regulate certain licenses.”
FWP’s “delegation of IT responsibilities to program staff has created a scattered, inconsistent IT environment without IT support,” Stratman said.
One example she cited as a problem specific to FWP is a database “stored solely on a single computer within one of FWPs divisions. It’s a data silo that is not connected to the rest of the agency. It has been in use for decades and is no longer supported by IT. Program staff manage its operation and must manually extract and share data with other divisions.”
Internal failure
Initially, Fish, Wildlife & Parks sought an outside vendor to provide a new Automated Licensing System.
“FWP found that no provider could fully meet its specialized needs, so the agency chose to develop the new system internally,” the audit noted.
So far, that work has been difficult.
“Every time we try to get our head and hands around all of it, I mean, if you’ve bought a license from FWP you know there’s pages and pages of different ways that you can go,” FWP director Christy Clark told the Legislative Audit Committee. “And trying to build that internally has been a challenge, and we’ve been working on it since 2021.”
Staffing and morale issues
Unfortunately for FWP, its problems are not confined to its aged and specialized information technology systems.
Repeated staff and leadership turnover were cited in a March 2025 audit of the agency’s human resource practices and culture that found employees suffering from low morale as well as “other workplace culture issues.”
In 2021 and again in 2023 and 2024, Gov. Greg Gianforte appointed new directors to lead the agency that he vowed to reform claiming it was at war with landowners. The 2023 appointee, Dustin Temple, had been promoted from the information technology side of the department. Clark has only been in office 11 months.
Staff turnover also resulted in the inability of FWP to create an IT steering committee to establish guidance and coordination, the audit noted.
“When key staff leave, they often take with them essential knowledge of custom-built systems,” the audit said.
“I cannot emphasize enough how much complexity faces FWP as it works to meet its goals and fulfill its mission,” Stratman said.
Outside help
Clark told the audit committee, “We don’t deny that there is work to be done.”
“We are working through the culture issues,” she added. “We have hired Collaborative Safety, and that’s a much different approach to culture reset, so we’re working through those.”
Collaborative Safety is a Nashville-based company hired to transform FWP’s culture to increase staff retention and improve morale.
Another “external firm” has been brought in as the result of Gov. Gianforte’s July executive order to help centralize the entire executive branch of state government.
“We are in the process of evaluating exactly what that means,” said Kevin Gilbertson, chief information officer for the state, but it will include a “new organizational structure.”
Included in the executive order was a state hiring freeze, but Clark said FWP is still filling positions that become vacant and working with the State Information Technology Services Division to hire information technology staff.
“So far, it has not been a disruption,” she said.
Addressing modernization
According to Stratman, however, the governor’s hiring freeze does have the potential to further “delay modernization projects and affect IT resource allocation” for Fish, Wildlife & Parks.
“This uncertainty could impact the timeline for implementing our recommendations,” she said, although adding a qualification.
“While these changes may introduce new challenges, the executive order could also improve coordination and support FWPs efforts to modernize, enhance efficiency and reduce risk, potentially resulting in positive financial outcomes.”
According to the audit, because FWP utilizes more than 100 distinct software applications, a more centralized system could result in cost savings ranging from $10 million to $30 million annually.
“It’s going to be a long road for them, because right now they are still using the ALS, and it’s going to take a while to unravel that bowl of spaghetti and make the noodles match with the (commercial off-the-shelf) system,” Stratman said.
