Audit of the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services Hiring Recovery Program and Office of Justice Programs Recovery Act Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants Awarded to the City of Portland, Maine.

摘要

The Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General Audit Division has completed an audit of an Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP) grant number 2009-RJ-WX-0414, and an Office of Justice Programs (OJP) Bureau of Justice Assistance Recovery Act Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance (JAG) grant number 2009-SB-B9-2240, awarded to the Portland Police Department, Portland, Maine (Portland). Collectively, the grants totaled $2,041,241. The general purpose of the grants was to preserve jobs, promote economic recovery, and increase crime prevention efforts. The purpose of the COPS award was to increase community policing capacity and crime-prevention efforts, and the purpose of the OJP award was to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of state and local criminal justice systems. The objective of our audit was to determine whether costs claimed under the grants were allowable, supported, and in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, guidelines, and the terms and conditions of the grants. We also assessed Portlands program performance in meeting the grants objectives and overall accomplishments.We reviewed Portlands compliance with key award conditions and found Portland generally met the terms and conditions of the awards governing most of the grant management areas we tested. However, we identified one finding related to inaccurate application statistics submitted with the citys CHRP grant. To select CHRP grantees, COPS developed a methodology that scored and ranked each applicant based on key data submitted by the applicant. While COPS performed some limited data validity checks, COPS relied heavily on the accuracy of the data submitted by grant applicants. Specifically, we found inaccuracies with Portlands application data related to the total law enforcement budget for 2007 and 2008 and the unemployment rate reported for January 2009. Our finding did not result in questioned costs.