The U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Audit Division, has completed an audit of the Southwest Border Prosecution Initiative (SWBPI) funding awarded by the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) to the County of El Paso, El Paso, Texas.

Many drug and other criminal cases occurring along the southwest border are initiated by a federal law enforcement agency or multi‑jurisdictional task forces, e.g., High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas (HIDTA) and Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF). Many U.S. Attorneys, including the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Texas, have developed prosecution guidelines which govern the most common violations of federal law. These prosecution guidelines are used by law enforcement agencies to determine whether to file a case in federal, state, or county court. As a result, many federally initiated cases that occur near the southwest border are referred to the state or county for prosecution.

The SWBPI was established in FY 2002, when Congress began appropriating funds to reimburse state, county, parish, tribal, and municipal governments for costs associated with the prosecution of criminal cases declined-referred by local U.S. Attorneys’ offices. Reimbursements received from SWBPI funding may be used for any lawful purpose that is in the best interest of the jurisdiction, including support of government operations, purchase of equipment, or payment of staff salaries. For FY 2006, Congress appropriated $30 million for the SWBPI.

As of July 11, 2007, the County of El Paso received funds totaling $13,470,120 on a pro-rata basis from the SWBPI for federally initiated and declined-referred criminal cases.

The objective of our audit was to determine if the SWBPI reimbursements received by the County of El Paso were allowable, supported, and in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, guidelines, and the terms and conditions of the SWBPI.

Based on our review, we determined that the detailed case listings provided by the County of El Paso included $6,380,557 for cases that were not eligible for reimbursement pursuant to the SWBPI guidelines. Disallowed cases listed by the County of El Paso are in Appendices III through IX. Specifically, we found:

• $848,250 was included for 131 cases that were listed multiple times but can be reimbursed only once.

• $3,768,750 was included for 627 cases that were not federally initiated.

• $340,000 was for 136 cases with an incorrect disposition time.

• $142,307 was included for cases that had insufficient supporting documentation to substantiate reimbursement. Of the $142,307, $5,000 could be traced to two cases. The remainder of the $142,307 ($137,307) was an error in a reimbursement request that was reported to BJA but never corrected.

• $1,272,500 was included for 269 cases for detention of inmates who had not been held in a secured facility for one full day.

Since the County of El Paso received $1,120,193 from other federal funding and was reimbursed less than the amounts they requested from BJA, we determined that total questioned costs were $3,891,169. These items are discussed in detail in the Findings and Recommendations section of the report. Our audit objectives, scope, and methodology appear in Appendix I.