Objectives
The objectives of this audit were to: (1) assess the adequacy of the Office of Justice Programs’ (OJP) design and management of the grant programs; (2) evaluate the extent to which grantees have administered the grants in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, guidelines, and terms and conditions of the grant awards; and (3) assess the effectiveness of the grant programs for trafficking victims.
Scope and Methodology
We performed the audit in accordance with the Government Auditing Standards and included tests and procedures necessary to accomplish the objectives.
The audit covered human trafficking grant activities from January 2003, to April 2008. We performed audit work at OJP’s Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), the Department’s Civil Rights and Criminal Divisions, and at the following OVC service providers and associated BJA task forces.
| OVC Service Providers | BJA Task Forces |
|---|---|
| Boat People S.O.S., Inc., Falls Church, Virginia | Metropolitan Police Department of the District of Columbia, Washington, D.C. |
| Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking, Los Angeles, California | City of Los Angeles, California |
| Heartland Alliance for Human Needs and Human Rights, Chicago, Illinois | Chicago, Illinois Police Department City of Milwaukee, Wisconsin |
| International Rescue Committee, Miami, Florida | Collier County, Florida Miami Dade County, Florida |
| Mosaic Family Services, Inc., Dallas, Texas | Dallas, Texas Police Department City of Fort Worth, Texas |
| Refugee Women’s Network, Inc., Decatur, Georgia | City of Atlanta, Georgia Cobb County, Georgia Board of Commissioners |
| YMCA of the Greater Houston Area, Inc., Houston, Texas | Harris County, Texas |
Grant Program Design and Management
To assess the adequacy of OJP’s design and management of the cooperative agreement and grant programs, we performed the following steps:
- We reviewed laws, regulations, guidelines, and terms and conditions OJP had in place for managing, administering, and awarding cooperative agreements and grants for human trafficking.
- We interviewed the OVC and BJA officials to determine how they implemented the human trafficking grant programs.
- We obtained and reviewed documentation related to the OVC cooperative agreements awarded to service providers and the BJA grants awarded to task forces. As part of this review, we identified the total scope of the OVC service provider agreements and task force grants awarded from FYs 2003 through 2007.
- We obtained performance data related to victims served by the OVC service providers and to victims identified by the BJA task forces from calendar year 2003 through June 2007.
- We analyzed the reported service provider and task force performance data to determine if the task forces were effective in increasing the number of victims aided by the service providers on a continuing basis.
- We obtained the Department’s annual reports to Congress submitted from FYs 2004 through 2007 on the government’s actions to combat human trafficking. We compared the data reported on trafficking victims aided by the service providers to data maintained by the OVC to determine if the reported numbers were accurate. We also performed further analysis at seven OVC service providers to determine if the data on victims assisted was accurately reported to the OVC by the service providers.
- We reviewed the Department’s 2007 annual report to Congress and compared the data reported on trafficking victims identified by the task forces to data maintained by the BJA to determine if the reported numbers were accurate. We also performed further analysis at 11 BJA task forces to determine if the data on victims identified was accurately reported to the BJA by the task forces.
- We evaluated the OVC service provider agreements for seven service providers to determine if the agreement funds were equitably distributed.
- We evaluated the BJA task force grants for 11 task forces to determine if they provided pre-grant data to establish a baseline of the number of “trafficking victim saves” for measuring compliance with the requirement to increase “trafficking victim saves” by 15 percent annually.
Administration of Grants
To evaluate the extent to which grantees administered the cooperative agreements and grants in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, guidelines, and terms and conditions of the grant awards, we performed the following steps:
- We obtained the results of OIG audits of six OVC service providers and one BJA task force issued from April 2007 through March 2008. Details of these audits are contained in Appendix III.
- We analyzed the results of the seven audits to identify systemic deficiencies in the areas of goals and accomplishments, reporting, fund drawdowns, budget management and control, program income, local matching requirements, expenditures, indirect costs, monitoring of subrecipients, and accounting and internal controls.
- We analyzed OJP’s and the grantees’ responses to the OIG audits to determine if corrective actions had been taken or initiated for the deficiencies found.
Grant Program Effectiveness
To assess the effectiveness of the grant programs for trafficking victims, we performed the following steps.
- We analyzed all performance data reported by the 7 OVC service providers and 11 BJA task forces.
- We interviewed officials from the OVC, the BJA, the OVC service providers, and the BJA task forces to determine the reasons for inaccurate performance data.
- We obtained and analyzed data to determine whether the OVC service providers achieved the performance goals stated in their agreement applications.
- We analyzed the agreement funds spent by the seven OVC service providers to determine if they could account for the amount of agreement funds spent on direct assistance to victims.
- We interviewed service provider and task force officials to obtain their views on the effectiveness of OJP’s human trafficking grant programs.