Inspector General
U.S. Department of Justice
Director, Asset Forfeiture Management Staff
U.S. Department of Justice
We have audited the accompanying consolidated balance sheets of the Assets Forfeiture Fund and Seized Asset Deposit Fund, a financial reporting component of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) referred to herein as the AFF/SADF, as of September 30, 2003 and 2002, and the related consolidated statements of net cost, of changes in net position, and of financing, and the combined statements of budgetary resources, for the years then ended. These financial statements are the responsibility of the Asset Forfeiture Management Staff's management. Our responsibility is to express an opinion on these financial statements based on our audits.
We conducted our audits in accordance with auditing standards generally accepted in the United States of America; the standards applicable to financial audits contained in Government Auditing Standards, issued by the Comptroller General of the United States; and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Bulletin No. 01-02, Audit Requirements for Federal Financial Statements. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain reasonable assurance about whether the financial statements are free of material misstatement. An audit includes examining, on a test basis, evidence supporting the amounts and disclosures in the financial statements. An audit also includes assessing the accounting principles used and significant estimates made by management, as well as evaluating the overall financial statement presentation. We believe that our audits provide a reasonable basis for our opinion.
In our opinion, the financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of the AFF/SADF at September 30, 2003 and 2002, and its net cost of operations, changes in net position, budgetary resources, and financing for the years then ended in conformity with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.
Pursuant to the Homeland Security Act of 2002, Public Law 107-296, the operations and funds of the Immigration and Naturalization Service were transferred to the Department of Homeland Security on March 1, 2003. However, legacy INS asset seizure and forfeiture activity remained part of the AFF/SADF for the entire fiscal year. Additionally, as stated in Note 1 to the AFF/SADF financial statements, the operations and funds of certain programs of the U.S. Department of the Treasury Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms were transferred to the DOJ's newly created Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) effective January 24, 2003. The AFF/SADF has included ATF seizure and forfeiture activity in its financial statements since January 24, 2003.
The Management's Discussion and Analysis (MD&A) and Required Supplementary Information (RSI) are not required parts of the financial statements but are supplementary information required by the Federal Accounting Standards Advisory Board and OMB Bulletin No. 01-09, Form and Content of Agency Financial Statements. We have applied certain limited procedures, which consisted principally of inquiries of management regarding the methods of measurement and presentation of the MD&A and RSI. However, we did not audit this information and express no opinion on it.
Our audits were conducted for the purpose of forming an opinion on the financial statements taken as a whole. The Other Accompanying Information and Supplemental Financial Statements are presented for purposes of additional analysis and are not a required part of the basic financial statements. Such information has not been subjected to the auditing procedures applied in the audit of the financial statements, and, accordingly, we express no opinion on it.
In accordance with Government Auditing Standards, we have also issued a report dated January 14, 2004, on our consideration of AFF/SADF's internal control and a report dated January 14, 2004, on its compliance with laws and regulations. Those reports are an integral part of an audit performed in accordance with Government Auditing Standards and should be read in conjunction with this report in considering the results of our audits.
January 14, 2004