U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

 

Audit Report

 

Office of Community Oriented Policing Services

Hurricane Police Department

Hurricane, Utah

 

GR-80-98-032

 

August 28, 1998

 

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

 

The Office of the Inspector General, Audit Division, has completed an audit of the grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), to the Hurricane Police Department, Hurricane, Utah. The Hurricane Police Department received a grant of $66,555 to hire or rehire one sworn police officer under the Funding Accelerated for Smaller Towns (FAST) program, and $150,000 to hire or rehire two police officers under a Universal Hiring Program (UHP) supplement. The purpose of the additional officers is to enhance community policing efforts.

Budgeted funds for police services and the number of officers budgeted increased each year since FY 1994, the year before the initial grant was awarded. Funds provided under this grant and the UHP supplement were used to enhance the Hurricane Police Department's community policing efforts. The number of officers performing community policing activities increased by the number of officers funded under these grants.

However, we found the following weaknesses with regard to meeting the grant conditions:

- Budgeted amounts, rather than actual, were used when preparing Requests for Reimbursement and Financial Status Reports, resulting in an understatement in cumulative total program outlays of $15,327.

- Federal share of outlays reported on the Financial Status Reports did not reconcile with the amount of reimbursements requested, resulting in an understatement of $4,582.

- Several Financial Status Reports were not submitted timely.

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