Audit of the Office of Justice Programs Victim Assistance Funds Subawarded by the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council to Women Moving On, Inc., Decatur, Georgia

• NCJ Number: 309389
• Date Published: June 2023
• Length: 30 pages

Annotation

This report presents results of the Office of Justice Programs Victim Assistance Funds Subawarded by the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council to Women Moving On, Inc., Decatur, Georgia

Abstract

This audit of Office of Justice Programs Victim Assistance Funds Subawarded by the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council to Women Moving On (WMO), Inc., Decatur, Georgia, found that WMO provided services to victims of crime but needs to improve certain areas of its subaward financial management. The objective of this DOJ Office of the Inspector General audit was to review how WMO used Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funds to assist crime victims and assess whether it accounted for these funds in compliance with award requirements, terms, and conditions. The audit concluded that WMO provided a range of services to victims of domestic violence in accordance with award requirements, including emergency shelter, rent assistance, transitional housing, legal advocacy, and financial assistance. Auditors concluded that WMO needs to establish comprehensive written policies and procedures to ensure its financial records accurately reflect all expenditures charged to VOCA subawards and that payments made by WMO are made according to the VOCA Victim Assistance Program requirements. WMO lacked segregation of duties, circumvented internal controls procedures over disbursement of funds, and did not disclose to the Georgia CJCC a potential conflict of interest. WMO requested and received $45,623 in excess of actual project costs supported by its accounting system. The auditors also questioned $31,306 in unsupported costs. OJP provided funds to the Georgia Criminal Justice Coordinating Council (Georgia CJCC) to make subawards supporting victim assistance programs in the state of Georgia. The Georgia CJCC awarded $1,703,090 in crime victim assistance funds to Women Moving On, Inc. (WMO), under two subawards in October 2020 and one subaward in October 2021. The purpose of the subawards was to provide services to victims of domestic violence. As of November 2022, the Georgia CJCC had reimbursed WMO the total of the three subawards, $1,703,090.