NCJ Number
250615
Date Published
February 2017
Length
35 pages
Annotation
This report presents the findings and methodology of the U.S. Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General's audit of the Office of Justice Programs' (OJP's) Office for Victims of Crime's assistance grants awarded to the Office of Victim Services and Justice Grants in Washington, DC.
Abstract
Audits were completed on three Victim Assistance Formula grants totaling $7,100,587. These awards were for improving crime victim services in the District of Columbia. The audit evaluated how the OVSIG designed and implemented its crime victim assistance program by assessing grant management performance in the following areas; victim assistance award planning, program requirements and performance reporting, grant financial management, and monitoring of sub-recipients. Overall, the audit found that the OVSIG used its VOCA victim assistance grant funding to improve services for crime victims. The audit did not identify significant concerns regarding the OVSIG's annual performance reports, drawdown process, Federal financial reports, or sub-recipient monitoring; however, the audit found that the OVSIG could make several improvements in its management of these grants, including improving controls over the funds allocated for grant administration. It was also determined that the OVSIG did not comply with essential award conditions related to use of the 5 percent of each award that it could spend on administrative purposes. Specifically, the OVSIG based its time-keeping and payroll procedures on budget projections and did not keep records based on the actual time its employees worked on the VOCA grants. The audit questions all $152,807 in unsupported personnel costs the OVSIG charged to the grants. This report contains eight recommendations for OJP, and OJP and OVSIG responses to the audit's draft report are appended. 3 tables