January 6, 2017 — Former state Wildlife and Fisheries secretary Robert Barham used the public comment period during Thursday’s Louisiana Wildlife and Fisheries Commission meeting to refute allegations of misspending and fiscal irresponsibility during his eight years at that post.
Most of the questions center around LDWF spending in the months and years following the BP-Deepwater Horizon oil disaster.
The allegations came during Charlie Melancon’s stormy 11-month tenure as head of the state agency. Melancon resigned the position last week, and Gov. J.B. Edwards named state Rep. Jack Montoucet, D-Crowley, to take the post effective Jan. 16.
“I’m here to address the news reports of the last year,” Barham said. “When I took the job (LDWF secretary) eight years ago, the department was entrenched in systematic financial mismanagement.
“It became clear the department would be in the red within a year, and we made programmatic changes through operation and management decisions that we would be four current years in the black.”