BATON ROUGE - Louisiana auditors are looking for $55,000 in missing state-owned fishing equipment say they believe they found many of the items with two former state workers.

This missing equipment, including coolers, rods and reels, binoculars and spear guns, was bought by the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries using money from BP after the Gulf Coast oil spill. The money was supposed to pay for seafood safety testing.

Legislative Auditor Darryl Purpera's office previously questioned whether many of the equipment purchases were needed for the fish testing program. On Monday, the office released a follow-up audit outlining efforts to track the BP-financed missing items.

Auditors say two former Wildlife and Fisheries employees had items totaling nearly $20,000 that matched descriptions of the missing equipment in their possession or offered for sale online.