Ensuring Effective Grant Programs
DOJ manages a variety of grant programs, providing funding to state and local entities for such purposes as law enforcement assistance, crime prevention and intervention, and juvenile justice. According to the DOJ Office of the Inspector General (IG), the department awarded more than $23 billion in grants from October 1999 through March 2006. Concerns have been raised, however, regarding the effectiveness of programs supported by DOJ grant funds, as well as DOJ’s oversight and management of grant programs, as the following examples illustrate:
- As with any federal grant program, it is important that federal dollars
be used most effectively to achieve demonstrable positive results. DOJ has
had varied success with its grant programs. For example, GAO’s work
on Community-Oriented Policing Services (COPS) funds showed that these DOJ
grant dollars led to an increased number of officers in states and localities,
as well as changing policing practices, which in turn had a positive effect
on declines in the crime rate in the 1990s, although the contributions were
modest and varied over time and among categories of crime.
Highlights of GAO-06-104 (PDF)
- Similarly, in July 2008, the DOJ IG reported that the department’s
program to help prevent the trafficking of persons had built significant
capacities to serve such victims but had not been effective at identifying
and serving significant numbers of victims who were aliens
DOJIG 08-26 (PDF, 144 pages) and http://www.usdoj.gov/oig/reports/OJP/index.htm
- DOJ has faced difficulties in effectively managing grant programs, and
the DOJ IG has identified grants management as one of the “top management
challenges in the Department of Justice.” For example, in 2006 the
IG reported that DOJ failed to ensure grants were closed appropriately and
in a timely manner, jeopardizing hundreds of millions of dollars in questioned
costs that could have been used to provide DOJ with additional resources
for other priorities or returned to the general fund.
DOJIG-07-05 and Top Management and Performance Challenges in the Department of Justice - 2008
- GAO’s ongoing work reviewing federal grant support for gang prevention and suppression efforts and programs to help prevent or reduce problems faced by juveniles in the justice system, such as substance abuse, is assessing how well DOJ is monitoring and implementing such programs. The juvenile justice work is also assessing to what extent DOJ uses available research on the success and results of various programs when determining what programs to fund, in order to ensure the most effective use of federal grant dollars.
^ Back to topWhat Needs to Be Done
- In an era of fiscal imbalance as well as in an environment where states and localities are concerned about their ability to fund and sustain programs to fight traditional crime issues, it will continue to be critical for DOJ overall improve in its grants management process to ensure these federal funds achieve maximum results.
- In addition, it will be important for DOJ to help ensure programs supported by grant funding are designed to achieve maximum effectiveness and contain ways to measure results..
^ Back to topKey Reports
- Community Policing Grants: COPS Grants Were a Modest Contributor to Declines in Crime in the 1990s
- GAO-06-104, October 14, 2005
- Summary (HTML) Highlights Page (PDF) Full Report (PDF, 124 pages) Accessible Text
- Department Of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, FY 2008 Performance and Accountability Report, Office of the Inspector General Top Management and Performance Challenges in the Department of Justice; 2008
- (Washington D.C.: Nov. 12, 2008).
- Top Management and Performance Challenges in the Department of Justice - 2008
