Effectiveness of the Office for Victims of Crime Tribal Victim Assistance Program

Audit Report 06-08
February 2006
Office of the Inspector General

The OVC tribal victim assistance program was designed to establish, expand, and improve direct-service victim assistance programs in remote, rural Native American communities. In planning and performing the audit, we considered the OVC’s internal controls for the purpose of determining our auditing procedures. The evaluation was not made for the purpose of providing assurance on OVC’s internal control structure as a whole. However, we noted certain matters that we consider reportable conditions under generally accepted government auditing standards.32 Specifically, the OVC did not ensure that required progress reports were submitted and that tribal grantees included the required performance measure information in progress reports. (See Finding I.) PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) performed the FY 2004 financial statement audit of the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), in which the OVC resides. During this audit, PwC evaluated the general controls over OJP’s financial systems, mixed feeder systems, and general-support systems. PwC’s review determined if OJP’s internal controls were sufficient to provide reasonable assurance that processed transactions could be relied upon by the auditors in performing the financial statement audit testing. As a result of the work performed, PwC identified material weaknesses in internal controls over computerized information systems at OJP. Weaknesses identified included inadequate controls over: (1) changes to applications and program changes in these systems; (2) the integrity of data passed between the feeder and core financial systems; and (3) access to systems and data. PwC concluded that OJP did not have effective internal controls over the computerized information systems it uses to process grant transactions, and as a result, it could not rely upon the internal controls over these systems. PwC also identified material weaknesses in OJP’s overall control environment, grant accounting and monitoring, documentation of adjusting journal entries, and the financial reporting process. Accordingly, PwC was unable to complete the financial statement audit and issued a disclaimer of opinion on OJP’s financial statements. Because we are not expressing an opinion on the overall internal control structure of the OVC, this statement is intended solely for the information and use by the OVC in managing its tribal victim assistance program. Footnotes Reportable conditions involve matters coming to our attention relating to significant deficiencies in the design or operation of the management control structure that, in our judgment, could adversely affect the ability of the OVC to administer its victim assistance grants awarded to tribal governments.