This is the report of the U.S. Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General's audit of the National Institute of Justice's (NIJ's) management and oversight of reporting and use of program income by grantees who received funding for DNA backlog reduction.
NIJ awarded approximately $302 million in grants to State and local governments during fiscal years (FY) 2010 through 2013 to increase the capability for public DNA laboratories to process more DNA cases, so as to reduce the number of DNA cases awaiting analysis. Grantees are allowed to use grant monies for services charged to other agencies for performing DNA analyses, subpoena services, and court testimony. Grantees must place a prorated amount of such program income back into their grant award budget; they can use this income only for costs allowable under the grant. Audit objectives were to determine how NIJ managed DNA grantees' accounting and use of program income and whether grantees were accurately reporting and appropriately using these funds. The audit determined that NIJ needs to improve its process for identifying grantees with the potential for generating program income. It also found that NIJ's current method should be strengthened so as to determine whether grantees' potential for generating program income has changed during the grant period. NIJ does not provide for monitoring grantees to verify the amount of program income that grantees generate; consequently, NIJ cannot ensure that grantees appropriately apply program income to further reduce the number of DNA cases awaiting analysis. In addition, the audit found that for the services generating income, the calculations were often incorrect due to lack of training on NIJ's calculation tool. Four recommendations are presented for improving NIJ's oversight of the reporting and use of program income by grantees. 1 table and appended audit methodology and NIJ's response to the draft report