October 26th, 2016 — A former Louisiana Cabinet official is fending off criticism about the way he managed a program to ensure seafood from the Gulf of Mexico was safe to eat after a massive oil spill in 2010.

Robert Barham pushed back against auditors’ suggestions the work was shoddy, saying in an interview with The Associated Press that he has no question the seafood was tested thoroughly after the spill, which was sparked by a broken rig and led to the worst oil spill in U.S. history.

“With absolutely no equivocation, I not only feel confident that everything we said was true, but that we did everything that we needed to do to ensure that it is safe,” Barham said.

The Louisiana Legislative Auditor’s Office said it found insufficient sampling of fish, excessive spending and missing property in part of the $10.5 million BP-financed seafood safety program overseen by the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, when Barham was agency secretary.

State auditors found that Gulf oil spill recovery money intended for the fish testing instead paid for unnecessary iPads, cameras, boats and now-missing fishing equipment.

Read the full story from the Associated Press at the New Jersey Herald