Summary

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed an Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) grant to establish and operate the National School Safety Center, focusing on: (1) the Center's accomplishments during its first funding year; (2) financial management of the grant during the first year; and (3) various allegations made by former Center staff.

GAO found that: (1) first-year funding for the Center totalled about $2.1 million, and second-year funding should total about $1.7 million; (2) the Center will use 47-percent fewer permanent staff in its second year of operation, while it relies more on outside consultants; (3) the Center completed 75 percent of its planned tasks during the first year, in addition to completing 96 percent of its planned tasks that had no specific completion date; and (4) an internal audit by the grantee reported that, overall, the grant's expenditures were reasonable and allocable to the grant, and questioned less than 1 percent of the Center's expenditures. In addition, GAO found that: (1) the Center director's style and approach led to confrontations between him and former Center staff; (2) the grantee changed the organization of the Center and the director now reports to an executive director; (3) over 60 percent of the Center's original staff have either resigned or been laid off; (4) there was no basis to question certain actions taken by the Center which former employees alleged to have been improper.