Semiannual Report to Congress

April 1, 2010 – September 30, 2010
Office of the Inspector General


American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009

recovery act logo

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) provides $787 billion in funding as a stimulus to the economy. Of that funding, the Department received $4 billion for grant funding to enhance state, local, and tribal law enforcement; to combat violence against women; and to fight Internet crimes against children.

The OIG is conducting aggressive Recovery Act oversight involving the coordinated efforts of auditors, investigators, and inspectors. Through this multidisciplinary effort, the OIG has provided advice to Department granting agencies regarding best practices in the awarding and monitoring of grants, trained Department grant managers on fraud risks, reached out to state and local agency Recovery Act recipients of Department grant funds, audited and evaluated the Department’s use of Recovery Act funding, and conducted investigations of allegations of misuse of Recovery Act funds by Department grant recipients. 

In particular, since the enactment of the Recovery Act in February 2009, the OIG has trained 5,280 federal, state, and local program managers and participants on Recovery Act fraud awareness, conducted 104 outreach sessions with state and local agencies, and initiated 27 audits and reviews of Recovery Act funds. In addition, the OIG is conducting 8 investigations of allegations pertaining to the Department’s Recovery Act programs. During this semiannual reporting period, the OIG issued 15 reports on the Recovery Act grant management activities of the Department as well as state and local entities, including an interim report designed to provide timely feedback to Department managers on matters of immediate concern regarding topics such as recipient reporting and grant award activities. 

Our reviews found that from enactment of the Recovery Act in February 2009 through September 2010, the Department has obligated more than 99 percent of its $4 billion in Recovery Act funds. Moreover, as of the end of August 2010, the Department had expended about 52 percent of its Recovery Act funds. The Department has handled this increased workload without any significant increase in staff. 

Our reviews have also found that, in general, the Department’s grant management staff has issued the Recovery grant funds in a timely, fair, and objective manner. However, our reports also identified several areas in which the Department could improve its grant management practices. We provide a summary below of our findings from our audit work.

Reports Issued

The Grantee Selection Process for the COPS Hiring Recovery Program

The OIG’s Audit Division examined the COPS selection process for the COPS Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP), a grant program using funding provided by the Recovery Act. The $1 billion program provides grant funding to state, local, and tribal law enforcement agencies in order to hire and rehire law enforcement officers. COPS received 7,272 applications requesting CHRP grant funding. In July 2009, COPS announced the selection of 1,046 grantees (approximately 14 percent of the total applicants), funding 4,699 officer positions. 

The OIG audit found that COPS developed the CHRP and selected grantees to receive grant funding in a timely and transparent manner, consistent with the requirements established in the Recovery Act. However, we identified inaccuracies in the scoring formulas used by COPS to select grantees. These inaccuracies resulted in the allocation of grants to 45 entities that should not have received grants, while another 34 entities that should have received grants did not. In addition, we identified six grantees that received more officer positions than they should have, and six grantees that received fewer officer positions than they should have. In total, the inaccuracies we identified affected the allocation of approximately $16 million in CHRP funds. Our report identifies the specific jurisdictions that were affected by the inaccuracies in the COPS scoring formulas.

In response to the inaccuracies we identified, COPS has corrected the scoring formulas so that the correct formulas can be used in the future when making grant awards. In addition, COPS stated it modified its FY 2010 hiring grant allocation process to ensure that those entities that were negatively affected due to scoring inaccuracies would receive appropriate grant funding.

The audit also concluded that COPS could improve its coordination with OJP, such as by sharing information on grant management documentation and on the identification and management of high-risk grantees. In addition, the report emphasized that COPS should encourage grant recipients to participate in training so that they are fully aware of how to meet grant requirements and conditions.

In total, the report contained seven recommendations to COPS to help improve its grant management processes, including recommendations to remedy those agencies negatively affected by the scoring inaccuracies, to improve the grantee selection processes, and to improve coordination with OJP relating to the oversight of Department grantees. COPS agreed with our recommendations and is taking steps to implement them.

OJP Recovery Act and Non-Recovery Act Programs for Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants and Byrne Competitive Grants

The OIG’s Audit Division issued an audit report examining the Department’s administration of the Edward Byrne Memorial Grant Program (Byrne Program), which provides grants to states, tribes, and local governments to support a broad range of law enforcement activities. The Byrne Program consists of the Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) Program and the Byrne Competitive Grant Program. Byrne JAG Program funds are awarded non-competitively based on a formula established by law. Byrne Competitive Grant Program funds are awarded using a competitive application process. The Department received $2.2 billion in Recovery Act funds for the Byrne Program in FY 2009, which was more than the total Byrne JAG funds in the preceding 4 fiscal years.

Our audit found that, despite the large workload increase, OJP generally managed the $2 billion in Recovery Act funds for the Byrne JAG Program in accordance with guidelines and established grant management practices. We found that OJP made the formula awards to states, territories, and local governments in a prompt and reasonable manner, and that it acted quickly to develop the solicitations, set reasonable deadlines for submitting applications, timely reviewed applications against solicitation requirements, and promptly made awards.

However, we found some grantees who had received Byrne JAG Recovery Act funds had submitted application packages missing complete program narratives, project abstracts, and budget documents, but still received awards. 

In addition, our individual audits of 12 Byrne JAG grantees also found deficiencies in the grantees’ use of grant awards in the areas of internal control environment, grant expenditures, property management, monitoring of subrecipients, reporting, and program performance. The deficiencies we identified included some grantees:  (1) not segregating duties over payroll functions; (2) not employing sufficient staff with the training and experience to properly manage the grants; (3) not placing equipment items purchased with grant funds into operation until years after purchase; (4) not maintaining property disposal records; (5) not having sufficient staff to adequately manage and oversee subrecipients of Byrne JAG funds; and (6) not submitting timely and accurate financial, progress, and Recovery Act reports. Specific examples of the deficiencies include: 

While most of the deficiencies we noted in these audits involved the non-Recovery Act Byrne grants, we believe the results are applicable more broadly to management of the annual Byrne Program. 

In the Byrne Competitive Grant Program, we also found that the Department made the discretionary awards in a prompt and reasonable manner, but we noted some processes that could be improved. For instance, some grant applications were allowed to continue through the competitive process even though they did not meet one or more of the solicitation requirements, while other applicants were denied further consideration for the same deficiencies. We recommended that the Department establish procedures to ensure that applications are treated consistently when determining whether the applications meet the solicitation requirements.

We also noted deficiencies in the peer review processes used by the Department’s bureaus and offices for evaluating and scoring grant applications, and for fully documenting the basis for award recommendations.

The OIG report made 15 recommendations to help the Department ensure that the Byrne programs are managed fairly and effectively. The Department agreed with 14 of the 15 recommendations and provided an acceptable alternative action for the remaining recommendation.

The Office on Violence Against Women’s Recovery Act Grant Selection Process

The OIG’s Audit Division examined the policies and procedures the OVW used to solicit, assess, and award Recovery Act grants. OVW administers $225 million from Recovery Act funding to award grants to state, local, and tribal governments and to non-government organizations to increase services that address violent crimes against women.

Our audit found that the OVW expeditiously announced grant opportunities and provided applicants sufficient time to apply for grant awards. The OVW used a grant selection process that was generally transparent and objective. In addition, the OVW‘s spending plan complied with Recovery Act and programmatic requirements.

However, the audit identified some weaknesses in the OVW’s award selection process. An important part of the OVW’s discretionary award process involves a peer review where individual program experts independently evaluate and score grant applications. The OVW uses the scores to rank applications by program, and those scores are an important factor, but not the only factor, in deciding which organizations should receive an award. Our audit found that in tabulating individual application scores, OVW staff added peer reviewers’ points incorrectly on many occasions.

A significant number of these miscalculations involved applications submitted under the two OVW tribal grant programs. OVW staff incorrectly calculated the peer review scores of 43 out of 77 applications in those two grant programs. The miscalculations resulted in some applications being incorrectly ranked above other applications that should have received higher scores. Our audit recommended that the OVW implement stronger internal controls to avoid future miscalculations in the award selection process.

The audit further revealed that peer reviewers were not always thoroughly screened for potential conflicts of interest before they were allowed to evaluate and score discretionary grant applications. In many instances, peer reviewers attested that they were free from conflicts of interest before they received the list of applicant names they were assigned to review. As a result, reviewers said they were free from conflict before they could possibly know if a conflict existed. While our audit did not identify specific instances where peer reviewers had a conflict of interest, we recommended that the OVW strengthen its conflict of interest procedures.

In addition, OVW award decision documents did not always detail why some higher-scoring applicants did not receive award recommendations. We recommended that the OVW improve its process for documenting its reasons for award decisions.

In total, our report made five recommendations to the OVW to improve future grant selection processes. The OVW agreed to implement all five recommendations.

The Award Process for the Bureau of Justice Assistance American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Correctional Facilities on Tribal Lands Grants Program:  Award Categories I through IV

The OIG’s Audit Division examined the award process for certain grants made under the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) Recovery and Reinvestment Act Correctional Facilities on Tribal Lands Grant Program. The purpose of these grants is to assist tribes in constructing and renovating correctional facilities that are appropriate for the intended population, supportive of cultural and traditional values, safe and secure, and in compliance with relevant Bureau of Indian Affairs correctional standards. The report concluded that the BJA made category I through IV awards under this program in compliance with established policies and procedures. However, the report noted some concerns with the consistent enforcement of required application materials. The BJA addressed these concerns by placing special conditions on eight awards with incomplete applications.

OIG Audits of Recovery Act Grants

During this reporting period, the OIG audited Recovery Act grants awarded by Department grant-awarding agencies to state and local recipients. Below are examples of our audit findings.

Ongoing Work

OJP’s Monitoring and Oversight of Recovery Act and Non-Recovery Act Grants

As part of the OIG’s Recovery Act reviews, we are examining the grant oversight efforts that OJP employs in its management of both Recovery Act and non-Recovery Act grants. Responsibility for grant oversight in OJP is shared between its award-making bureaus and offices, which are responsible for providing programmatic assistance and monitoring; the Office of Audit, Assessment, and Management, which assists with improvements and enhancements of the programmatic oversight; and the Office of the Chief Financial Officer, which conducts financial monitoring and provides financial management assistance to grantees.

 


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