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 Brooks County, Texas. As of March 26, 2007, Brooks County had received SWBPI funding totaling $7,816,735.
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 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 occurring near the southwest border are referred to the state or county for prosecution.
The SWBPI was established in Fiscal Year (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 by applicant jurisdictions for any purpose not otherwise prohibited by federal law. For FY 2007, Congress appropriated $30 million for the SWBPI.
The objective of our audit was to determine if the SWBPI reimbursements received by Brooks County were allowable, supported, and in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, guidelines, and terms and conditions of the SWBPI.
We found that Brooks County claimed and was reimbursed for unsupported cases and cases that were ineligible under the SWBPI guidelines. Based on the deficiencies listed below, we identified questioned costs totaling $1,921,274.1 Specifically, we found that Brooks County received:
- Unallowable reimbursements totaling $587,591 for 131 cases which were not federally initiated.
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Unallowable reimbursements totaling $382,258 for 116 cases that were not prosecuted and erroneously submitted.
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Unsupported reimbursements totaling $316,174 for 68 cases that were erroneously submitted with unsupported disposition dates.
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Unsupported reimbursements totaling $139,612 for 55 cases for which pre-trial detention data was unavailable.
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Unallowable reimbursements totaling $126,250 for 30 cases submitted in the incorrect quarter.
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Unsupported reimbursements totaling $117,804 for 26 cases with incomplete case files.
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Unsupported reimbursements totaling $48,455 for 11 cases submitted in a quarter without support.
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Unallowable excess reimbursements totaling $24,345 for six cases which were duplicates of other cases submitted.
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Unallowable reimbursements totaling $7,465 for two cases that were claimed under the both prosecution and pre-trial detention category, but should have been claimed as prosecution only because the defendant was not held overnight.
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Received unsupported reimbursements totaling $171,320 for 50 cases that were not supported by the master case list when reconciled with OJP reimbursement data.
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.
Footnotes