Office of Justice Programs
Fiscal Year 2000

Report No. 01-22
August 2001
Office of the Inspector General

    2001 M Street, N.W.
    Washington, D.C. 20036

Assistant Attorney General
Office of Justice Programs

Office of the Inspector General
U.S. Department of Justice:

We have audited the balance sheet of the Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs (OJP) as of September 30, 2000, and the related statements of net cost, changes in net position, budgetary resources, and financing, for the year then ended, and have issued our report thereon dated January 5, 2001. We conducted our audit in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America; the standards applicable to financial audits contained in Government Auditing Standards, issued by the Comptroller General of the United States; and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Bulletin No. 01-02, Audit Requirements for Federal Financial Statements.

In planning and performing our audit, we considered the OJP's internal control over financial reporting by obtaining an understanding of the agency's internal control, determining whether internal controls had been placed in operation, assessing control risk, and performing tests of controls in order to determine our auditing procedures for the purpose of expressing our opinion on the financial statements. We limited our internal control testing to those controls necessary to achieve the objectives described in OMB Bulletin No. 01-02 and Government Auditing Standards. We did not test all internal controls as defined by the Federal Managers' Financial Integrity Act of 1982. The objective of our audit was not to provide assurance on the OJP's internal control. Consequently, we do not provide an opinion on internal control over financial reporting.

Our consideration of internal control over financial reporting would not necessarily disclose all matters in the internal control over financial reporting that might be reportable conditions. Under standards issued by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, reportable conditions are matters coming to our attention relating to significant deficiencies in the design or operation of the internal control over financial reporting that, in our judgment, could adversely affect the OJP's ability to record, process, summarize, and report financial data consistent with the assertions by management in the financial statements. Material weaknesses are reportable conditions in which the design or operation of one or more of the internal control components does not reduce to a relatively low level the risk that misstatements, in amounts that would be material in relation to the financial statements being audited, may occur and not be detected within a timely period by employees in the normal course of performing their assigned functions. Because of inherent limitations in any internal control, misstatements due to error or fraud may occur and not be detected.

We noted certain matters, discussed in Exhibit I, involving the internal control over financial reporting and its operation that we consider to be reportable conditions. However, none of the reportable conditions are believed to be material weaknesses. Exhibit II presents the status of prior year audit findings.

As required by OMB Bulletin No. 01-02, we considered OJP's internal control over Required Supplementary Stewardship Information by obtaining an understanding of the agency's internal control, determining whether these internal controls had been placed in operation, assessing control risk, and performing tests of controls. Our procedures were not designed to provide assurance on internal control over Required Supplementary Stewardship Information, and, accordingly, we do not provide an opinion on such controls.

As further required by OMB Bulletin No. 01-02, with respect to internal control related to performance measures determined by management to be key and reported in the Management's Discussion and Analysis section of OJP's financial statements, we obtained an understanding of the design of significant internal controls relating to the existence and completeness assertions. Our procedures were not designed to provide assurance on internal control over reported performance measures, and, accordingly, we do not provide an opinion on internal control related to performance measures.

We also noted other less significant matters involving internal control and its operation that we have reported to the management of OJP in a separate letter dated January 5, 2001.

This report is intended solely for the information and use of the Department of Justice management, Office of the Inspector General; OMB; and Congress, and is not intended to be and should not be used by anyone other than these specified parties.