This report provides details about the audit of the Office of Justice Programs Victim Assistance Grants Awarded to the West Virginia Department of Homeland Security, Division of Administrative Services, Justice and Community Services, Charleston, West Virginia.
This audit of the Office of Justice Programs Victim Assistance Grants Awarded to the West Virginia Department of Homeland Security, Division of Administrative Services, Justice and Community Services (JCS), Charleston, West Virginia, concluded that West Virginia JCS utilized Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) funding to support its victim assistance program. This audit did not identify significant concerns regarding West Virginia JCS’s subaward allocation plans or selection of subrecipients. However, auditors identified several areas needing improvement, which include the internal control environment. West Virginia JCS needs to improve its recordkeeping of its required programmatic priority areas, update controls over its subrecipient monitoring and data reporting, and enhance its written programmatic and financial policies and procedures. Auditors also determined that drawdown activity did not reconcile to the cumulative expenditures in the accounting records, and auditors identified inaccurate information in the Federal Financial Reports. Auditors determined that West Virginia JCS served crime victims by providing subawards to direct victim service providers with its 2018 through 2020 grants. The audit did not identify significant concerns with its subaward allocation plan and selection of subrecipients. However, auditors found that West Virginia JCS did not track its compliance with its priority areas’ funding requirements and did not reconcile its required subaward performance and financial reporting data. Internal Control Environment Auditors determined that West Virginia JCS’s VOCA Administrative Manual was outdated and insufficient to guide staff through VOCA processes and requirements. Auditors found that West Virginia JCS officials were uncertain about the evolution of various undocumented processes, and they often were unable to provide requested support.