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Office on Violence Against Women Office
Comments to Draft Audit Report on
Administration of Department of Justice Grants
Awarded to Native American and Alaska Native Tribal Government
I. Effectiveness of Grant Monitoring
Recommendation #10
Ensure that monitoring plans are developed for each grantee that includes a risk assessment of each grantee based on past performance and compliance with grant requirements to determine the timing and frequency of office-based and on-site monitoring.
Response
The Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) agrees with this recommendation. OVW has already developed a Risk-Based Assessment Tool, which is included in the OVW Monitoring Manual. The risk factors that are assessed include whether or not the grant is a supplement to a current award, the award amount over the life of the grant, and compliance with grant administration and programmatic requirements on previous grant awards.
Previously, grant managers were required to complete a monitoring plan for each grantee after awards were processed. Right after awards are processed, we have found that grant managers often become very busy with the subsequent year's solicitation development, technical assistance activities and grantee monitoring. Therefore, the monitoring plans are not always completed and placed in the grant file. In order to remedy this, grant managers will be required to include their monitoring plans in the Grant Manager's Memorandum, which is written at the time of award processing and automatically becomes a part of the electronic grant file in the OJP Grants Management System. This will be done for all FY 2005 STOP Violence Against Indian Women grants that are processed.
Recommendation #11
Ensure that required financial and progress reports are submitted in a timely manner.
Response
OVW agrees with this recommendation. Currently OVW is participating on a working group with OJP on strategies to ensure timely submission of financial status reports. One strategy that has been discussed is conducting automated telephone outreach with grantees alerting them as to upcoming due dates for the financial status reports. It has been determined that this is a feasible strategy, and OJP's Office of the Comptroller (OC) is looking into how they can implement this. A timeline for this strategy has not yet been established. In addition, OJP and OVW will be posting report due date reminders on all web sites that grantees use. The working group continues to meet and discuss the impediments to timely submission of these reports and solutions to the impediments.
In response to a Congressional mandate to report on the effectiveness of Violence Against Women Act grant programs, OVW has created new progress report forms for all of our grant programs. In addition to the new forms, OVW grantees are required to submit the reports electronically to the OJP Grants Management System (GMS). As part of the roll out of these new forms, OVW has conducted significant outreach with grantees to train on the new forms, as well as to stress the importance of filing the reports. Outreach included numerous letters and emails, conference calls and in person training.
In November of 2004, the STOP Violence Against Indian Women progress reports were finalized. Grantees have been required to use the new system to submit their reports covering January, 2004 - June, 2004 and July, 2004 - December, 2004. As this is a new system, grantees experienced some significant difficulties submitting their reports on-line, but OVW is working with OJP's OCIO to work out these initial problems.
With the emphasis that OVW has placed on these new progress reports, we expect that the timely submission of progress reports will greatly improve. In addition, the new GMS-based progress reporting system enables OVW to more effectively monitor whether grantee progress reports are overdue.
Recommendation #12
Ensure that grant managers follow up with grantees if required financial and progress reports are not submitted or are not submitted in a timely manner.
Response
OVW agrees with this recommendation. OVW's Tribal Unit is responsible for the management of the STOP Violence Against Indian Women grants. The Unit will meet to establish a procedure which will outline ways to follow up with grantees whose reports are not submitted in a timely manner. The Unit will establish the procedure by May of 2005, and it will be implemented in time for the FY 2005 second quarter financial status reports and the first semi-annual progress report.
Recommendation #13
Ensure that grantees do not draw down grant funds if required financial or progress reports are not filed.
Response
OVW agrees with the recommendation regarding financial status reports. Although OVW has become an independent Office/Bureau/Division within the Department of Justice, we are still contracting with OJP's Office of the Comptroller (OC) for financial management services. It is OVW's understanding that OJP's OC has a mechanism in place to automatically freeze funds on a grant when a financial status report is not submitted. OVW will work with OJP's OC to ensure that this is happening for all grant awards. OVW will also ensure that future Memoranda of Understanding with OC include assurances that this will take place.
There is currently no mechanism in place for automatically freezing funds as a result of late progress reports, and at this time, OVW would not recommend automatically freezing grant funds due to delinquent progress reports. As stated previously, in November of 2004, we established a new progress reporting system for STOP Violence Against Indian Women grantees. The system is automated within GMS, and grantees are experiencing significant problems when attempting to submit these first reports. OVW is working with OJP's OCIO to work out all of the glitches in the system. Until the system is working smoothly, and grantees have had successful submissions, we do not feel it is fair to automatically freeze funds. After submission of the July, 2005 -December, 2005 progress reports, OVW will re-assess the viability of putting into place a mechanism that would automatically freeze funds as a result of late progress reports. Of course, in the mean time, grant managers will follow-up with grantees who are delinquent in submitting their reports.
II. Utilization of Grant Funds
Recommendation #27
Ensure that grant funds are obligated in a timely manner.
Response
OVW agrees with this recommendation. In the past, OVW has had significant problems
clearing budgets under the STOP Violence Against Indian Women program. Grantees
often do not respond to requests for revised budgets in a timely manner, or their
responses do not adequately address the issues raised by the financial review. While we have made some improvements in clearing these budgets in a more timely manner, we are still struggling in this area.
Beginning in fiscal year 2005, the OVW Tribal Unit will establish guidelines which limit the amount of time allowed for clearing a budget. The guidelines will include limits on the amount of time it should take to respond to budget revision requests. If there are extenuating circumstances that do not allow for the budget clearance prior to the award being made, generally, we will allow no more than six months to clear the budget after that award is made. The guidelines will include some flexibility around grantee-specific issues which may impede a tribe's ability to clear the budget in a timely manner. These guidelines will be developed by April 30, 2005.
Recommendation #28
Withhold grant awards if the applicant is delinquent in complying with prior grant requirements.
Response
OVW agrees with this recommendation. The fiscal year 2005 STOP Violence Against Indian Women solicitation stated that applications for continuation funding would be reviewed for prior compliance with Program and Office requirements. It specified that an internal review would take place prior to peer review, and that OVW staff would assess the following:
- Whether the grantee has complied with all special conditions of its existing grant award from the Department of Justice;
- Whether the grantee has adhered to programmatic and financial reporting requirements;
- Whether the grantee has received financial clearances on all current grants from DOJ; and
- Whether the grantee has complied with the Office of Management and Budget audit requirement.
In addition, the OVW Tribal Unit developed an internal review form for continuation grantees which deducted up to twenty-five points from an application for non-compliance with Program and Office requirements on their previous grant awards.
This year, the Tribal Unit will take into consideration these factors when making final funding recommendations to the Director.
Recommendation #29
Establish procedures to ensure that adjustments to the grant application budget are completed timely, including revoking grant awards if the applicant is delinquent in complying with budget revision requests.
Response
OVW agrees with this recommendation. As stated above, beginning in fiscal year 2005, the OVW Tribal Unit will establish guidelines which limit the amount of time allowed for clearing a budget. The guidelines will include limits on the amount of time it should take to respond to budget revision requests. If there are extenuating circumstances that do not allow for the budget clearance prior to the award being made, generally, we will allow no more than six months to clear the budget after an award that award is made. The guidelines will include some flexibility around grantee-specific issues which may impede a tribe's ability to clear the budget in a timely manner. These guidelines will be developed by April 30, 2005.
Recommendation #30
Ensure that grant drawdowns are monitored to determine if grant funds are being utilized in a timely manner.
Response
OVW agrees with this recommendation. OVW's Tribal Unit is responsible for the management of the STOP Violence Against Indian Women grants. Beginning with the fiscal year 2005 grantees, monitoring plans will include review of financial status reports as a monitoring activity. The Unit will review the quarterly financial status reports submitted by grantees and determine if grant funds are being utilized in accordance with their project goals and objectives.
Recommendation #31
Follow up with grantees that have not drawn down any grant funds to determine whether the grantees have encountered difficulties in implementing the grant program, and provide assistance as necessary.
Response
OVW agrees with this recommendation. As stated above, beginning with the fiscal year 2005 grantees, monitoring plans will include review of financial status reports as a monitoring activity. OVW's Tribal Unit will review the quarterly financial status reports submitted by grantees and determine if grant funds are being utilized in accordance with their project goals and objectives. If grant funds have not been drawn down, the grant manager will contact the grantee to determine what is happening with the grant, and to provide assistance as necessary.
Recommendation #32
Ensure that grant funds are deobligated and that the grants are closed if grantees are unable or unwilling to implement grant programs in a timely manner.
Response
OVW agrees with this recommendation. OVW is working steadily to close all grants that have ended and to deobligate the remaining funds. Currently, there are 43 STOP Violence Against Indian Women grants that are in need of closing out.
The OVW Tribal Unit is working closely with these grantees to gather the necessary information that is needed to both programmatically and financially closeout the grant. However, the problems encountered in closing many of these grants are complex and difficult. Under the STOP Violence Against Indian Women Program, recipient tribes are statutorily required to provide match. Many of the tribes have been unable to show how they have met their match requirement, and the Office of the Comptroller in OJP will not close the grant unless there is documentation that the match has been met. The Tribal Unit is working with, and will continue to work with these tribes to help them understand what can be used as match and how to document that match. If the match requirement cannot be met, the only other option would be to require the tribes to reimburse the match amount to OJP. As the tribes have very little resources, we do,not want to take those steps until we have exhausted all other means of assistance.
In addition to assisting the tribes whose grants have already ended, the OVW Tribal Unit hosted a focus group meeting to discuss some of the challenges under this grant program, including match issues, and to come up with possible solutions to the challenges. Attendees included the Tribal Unit, other OVW grant managers, an OVW attorney advisor, and staff from the Office of the Comptroller. One idea generated from the group included hosting a separate Financial Management Training just for recipients of the STOP Violence Against Indian Women Program, that includes a focus on match issues. This group will continue to work on ways to assist the tribes in meeting and documenting their match requirement.
Recommendation #33
Ensure that grantees are not allowed to draw down grant funds in excess of reported cumulative grant expenditures.
Response
OVW agrees with the recommendation. Although OVW has become an independent Office/Bureau/Division within the Department of Justice, we are still contracting with OJP's Office of the Comptroller (OC) for financial management services. OC is in the process of revising its procedures for monitoring drawdowns. The revised procedures will be finalized by April 2005.
Recommendation #34
Remedy the $70,863 in questioned costs related to excess drawdowns on expired grants.
Response
OVW agrees with this recommendation. Although OVW has become an independent Office/Bureau/Division within the Department of Justice, we are still contracting with OJP's Office of the Comptroller (OC) for financial management services. It is OVW's understanding that OJP's OC does not have a mechanism in place that automatically cuts off access to funds once a grant award expires. OVW will work with OJP's OC to determine whether or not this is a policy that should be put in place for OVW grantees.
The questioned costs are associated with two grants. In the process of closing out these two grants, the grant manager will work with OJP's OC and the tribes to determine whether or not the expenditures that were made after the grant expired were allowable costs under the statutory purpose areas of the program. If they were allowable costs, the grant manager will process an administrative extension to the grant in order to allow those expenditures to have taken place during the project period. We would recommend this action as the tribes have minimal resources, and we do not want to place an undue financial hardship on them. If the costs were unallowable under the statutory purpose areas, the grant manager will work with the grantee to reimburse those costs as part of the close out process.
III. Grant Closeout
Recommendation #46
Ensure that expired grants are closed in a timely manner and that remaining grant funds are deobligated prior to closing grants.
Response
OVW agrees with this recommendation. OVW is working steadily to close all grants that have ended and to deobligate the remaining funds. Currently, there are 43 STOP Violence Against Indian Women grants that are in need of closing out.
The OVW Tribal Unit is working closely with these grantees to gather the necessary information that is needed to both programmatically and financially closeout the grant. However, the problems encountered in closing many of these grants are complex and difficult. Under the STOP Violence Against Indian Women Program, recipient tribes are statutorily required to provide match. Many of the tribes have been unable to show how they have met their match requirement, and the Office of the Comptroller in OJP will not close the grant unless there is documentation that the match has been met. The Tribal Unit is working with, and will continue to work with these tribes to help them understand what can be used as match and how to document that match. If the match requirement cannot be met, the only other option would be to require the tribes to reimburse the match amount to OJP. As the tribes have very little resources, we do not want to take those steps until we have exhausted all other means of assistance.
In addition to assisting the tribes whose grants have already ended, the OVW Tribal Unit hosted a focus group meeting to discuss some of the challenges under this grant program, including match issues, and to come up with possible solutions to the challenges. Attendees included the Tribal Unit, other OVW grant managers, an OVW attorney advisor, and staff from the Office of the Comptroller. One idea generated from the group included hosting a separate Financial Management Training just for recipients of the STOP Violence Against Indian Women Program, that includes a focus on match issues. This group will continue to work on ways to assist the tribes in meeting and documenting their match requirement.
Recommendation #47
Deobligate and put to better use the $6,869 in remaining funds related to grants which have been closed.
Response
OVW agrees with this recommendation. The grant manager assigned to this grant is working with the grantee to close out this grant and deobligate the remaining funds.
Recommendation #48
Review grant drawdowns prior to the end of the grant period to determine if all grant funds have been drawn down, and follow up on any grants with remaining funds to determine if the grantee has expended or plans to expend remaining funds prior to the grant end date.
Response
OVW agrees with this recommendation. OVW's Tribal Unit is responsible for the management of the STOP Violence Against Indian Women grants. Beginning with the fiscal year 2005 grantees, monitoring plans will include review of financial status reports as a monitoring activity. The Unit will review the quarterly financial status reports submitted by grantees and determine if grant funds are being utilized in accordance with their project goals and objectives. In addition, near the end of the grant period, grant managers will work with grantees to determine how remaining funds will be spent, and in what timeframe.
Recommendation #49
Ensure that grantees are not allowed to draw down funds more than 90 days after the
grant end date and that all funds remaining on grants that have been expired for more
than 90 days are deobligated.
Response
OVW agrees with the recommendation. Although OVW has become an independent Office/Bureau/Division within the Department of Justice, we are still contracting with OJP's Office of the Comptroller (OC) for financial management services. It is OVW's understanding that OJP's OC does not have a mechanism in place that automatically cuts off access to funds once a grant award expires. OVW will work with OJP's OC to determine whether or not this is a policy that should be put in place for OVW grantees.
In addition, as stated previously, OVW is working to close all grants that have ended and deobligate remaining funds in those grants (see recommendation response number 32).
Recommendation #50
Remedy the $681,016 in questioned costs related to drawdowns occurring more than 90 days past the grant end date.
Response
OVW agrees with this recommendation. The questioned costs are associated with twenty-three grants. Of those twenty-three, at this time, fifteen have been officially closed. For the remaining eight grants, in the process of closing out these grants, the grant manager will work with OJP's OC and the tribes to determine whether or not the expenditures that were made after the grant expired were allowable costs under the statutory purpose areas of the program. If they were allowable costs, the grant manager will process an administrative extension to the grant in order to allow those expenditures to have taken place during the project period. We would recommend this action as the tribes have minimal resources, and we do not want to place an undue financial hardship on them. If the costs were unallowable under the statutory purpose areas, the grant manager will work with the grantee to reimburse those costs as part of the close out process.
Recommendation #51
Deobligate and put to better use the $1,250,922 in remaining funds related to expired grants that are more than 90 days past the grant end date.
Response
OVW agrees with this recommendation. OVW is working steadily to close all grants that have ended and to deobligate the remaining funds. Of the thirty grants in question, five have been officially closed.
The OVW Tribal Unit is working with the remaining grantees to gather the necessary information that is need to both programmatically and financially close the grants. However, the problems encountered in closing many of these grants are complex and difficult. Under the STOP Violence Against Indian Women Program, recipient tribes are statutorily required to provide match. Many of the tribes have been unable to show how they have met their match requirement, and the Office of the Comptroller in OJP will not close the grant unless there is documentation that the match has been met. The Tribal Unit is working with, and will continue to work with these tribes to help them understand what can be used as match and how to document that match. If the match requirement cannot be met, the only other option would be to require the tribes to reimburse the match amount to OJP. As the tribes have very little resources, we do not want to take those steps until we have exhausted all other means of assistance.
In addition to assisting the tribes whose grants have already ended, the OVW Tribal Unit hosted a focus group meeting to discuss some of the challenges under this grant program, including match issues, and to come up with possible solutions to the challenges. Attendees included the Tribal Unit, other OVW grant managers, an OVW attorney advisor, and staff from the Office of the Comptroller. One idea generated from the group included hosting a separate Financial Management Training just for recipients of the STOP Violence Against Indian Women Program, that includes a focus on match issues. This group will continue to work on ways to assist the tribes in meeting and documenting their match requirement.
V. DOJ Strategy for Awarding Grants to Tribal Governments
Recommendation #52
Work with OTJ to develop a formalized mechanism for coordinating and sharing information, including monitoring reports, related to a DOJ strategy, administration, and monitoring of grants awarded to tribal governments.
Response
OVW agrees with this recommendation. The OVW Tribal Unit coordinates all of the OVW grant awards to tribal governments. This Unit would be the logical group to work with OTJ on coordinating with other DOJ offices. OVW will reach out to OTJ, OJP and COPS to set up a meeting to discuss ways to develop these formalized mechanisms, as well as a process for training staff on tribal issues.
Recommendation #53
Work with OTJ to develop a formalized process for training staff responsible for administering and monitoring tribal-specific grant programs.
Response
OVW agrees with this recommendation. The OVW Tribal Unit coordinates all of the OVW grant awards to tribal governments. This Unit would be the logical group to work with OTJ on coordinating with other DOJ offices. OVW will reach out to OTJ, OJP and COPS to set up a meeting to discuss ways to develop these formalized mechanisms, as well as a process for training staff on tribal issues.
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