MEMORANDUM

This responds to the Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG) Draft Report: Audit of the Department of Justice’s Key Indicators. This response is limited to the recommendations directed to the Civil Rights Division (CRT).

Recommendation 3. Exclude appellate cases from the quarterly and fiscal year information provided to JMD to comply with the statements in the PAR [Performance and Accountability Report] and to avoid over or understating the percentage of cases favorably resolved for the key indicator “Percent of Cases Favorably Resolved.”

Response: CRT concurs with the recommendation. CRT took immediate action to modify its reporting of the key indicator “Percentage of Cases Favorably Resolved.” CRT has since reported its data accordingly in both its 2009 Congressional budget submission and the 2008 Performance and Accountability Report (PAR).

Status: The Applications Development Unit modified its Interactive Case Management (ICM) System reporting criteria to exclude all appellate-related cases from the reporting requirements generated in CRT’s internal performance report and updated its automated tracking system accordingly. The ICM report used to generate the performance-indicator statistics includes the case-related outcome data from the respective CRT sections, except its Appellate section, and is available upon request. Therefore, CRT considers this recommendation closed.

Recommendation 11. Examine the accuracy of their MD&A [Management Discussion and Analysis] narratives covering the key indicators and verify supporting information necessary to ensure the accuracy of the key indicator performance data. Additionally, component management should notify staff of the significant need for accuracy of the key indicator information presented in the MD&A for the PAR.

Response: CRT concurs with the recommendation. Senior CRT management emphasized to all component Section Chiefs the importance of timely and accurate data being reported and reemphasized that Section Chiefs bear responsibility to ensure accuracy about their programs in ICM. This is not only needed to meet the PAR requirements, but to be able to address ongoing inquiries from the Department, the Office of Management and Budget, Congress, and various other sources. Further, CRT implemented controls to ensure the timely and accurate reporting of its data, including the quarterly status reports and the quarterly ICM management reports, and included a Performance and Accountability Report link on CRT’s intranet site (Civil Rights Insider) to JMD’s policies.

Status: CRT continues to reiterate the importance of all of its workload data to Senior Division management and has automated the summary reporting and detailed backup reports necessary to support workload data being reported. Therefore, CRT considers this recommendation closed.

If you have any questions concerning this subject, please contact DeDe Greene, Executive Officer, at (202) 514-4224, or if your staff has specific follow-up questions, they can contact Mac McConkey at (202) 514-4224 or Milton Cartwright at (202) 514-4224.