The Office of the Inspector General, Audit Division has completed an audit of Grant Numbers 2006-MU-FX-0295 and 2007-JU-FX-0013 awarded by the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and Grant Number 2006-CK-WX-0218 awarded by the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) to Team Focus, Inc. (TFI). TFI was established as a non-profit organization to provide community-based and comprehensive outreach programs for fatherless young men between the ages of 10 and 18.

Between November 2005 and May 2008, OJP awarded TFI Grant Numbers 2006-MU-FX-0295, 2007-JU-FX-0013, and 2008-JL-FX-0554 totaling $2,153,576. At the time of our audit, TFI had not expended funds under Grant Number 2008-JL-FX-0554; therefore, we did not include this grant in our audit testing. COPS awarded TFI Grant Number 2006-CK-WX-0218 totaling $148,084. The OJP and COPS grants we reviewed totaled about $1.5 million.

We tested compliance with essential grant conditions pertaining to internal controls, drawdowns, budget management and control, expenditures, reporting, accomplishments, and monitoring contractors. In addition, we tested the accounting records to determine if costs claimed under the awards were allowable, supported, reasonable, and in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, guidelines, and the terms and conditions of the grants.

We found weaknesses in TFI’s internal controls, drawdowns, accounting for expenditures, reporting, achievement of grant objectives, and monitoring contractors. As a result, we identified $718,443 in questioned costs. We found that TFI:

• did not adequately separate the duties of processing and paying expenditures,
  
  
• engaged in hiring practices that created the appearance of a conflict of interest,
  
  
• did not have procedures for procuring and monitoring consultants hired to perform grant-related services,
  
  
• did not maintain time and attendance records and grant-related activity reports for employees and consultants paid with grant funds,
  
  
• did not maintain adequate documentation showing how it calculated its grant fund drawdowns and drew down $273,126 in grant funds for which it had not made grant-related expenditures,
  
  
• charged $445,317 to grant funds that were either unallowable or not supported by documentation,
  
  
• did not submit accurate and timely Financial Status Reports,
  
  
• did not submit timely progress reports, and
  
  
• did not achieve all grant-related objectives.
  
  

These concerns are discussed in detail in the Findings and Recommendations section of the report. Our audit objectives, scope, and methodology appear in Appendix I.