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. From fiscal years 2008 through 2009, DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs (OJP)—its largest grant making component—awarded over 7,900 grants totaling over $4.2 billion. Congress also appropriated an additional nearly $2.8 billion to DOJ for grant programs as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009(Recovery Act). 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)

• More recently, GAO reported on the quality of DOJ’s tool to measure performance under the Recovery Act Justice Assistance Grant (JAG) program. We found that the tool’s design did not consistently exhibit key attributes of successful performance measurement systems, such as clarity, reliability, linkage, objectivity, and measurable targets. Because the Recovery Act JAG program supports a wide array of activities at the state and local level, as well as the personnel to implement them, having clear performance measures that allow grantees to demonstrate results would provide useful information to DOJ on how Recovery Act JAG funds are being used.

  Highlights of GAO-11-97 (PDF)

• GAO reported that DOJ sponsored evaluations of grant programs to assist communities in addressing gang problems found that initiatives funded through some programs have had mixed results. While these evaluations found that grant recipients benefited from the programs in various ways—for example the programs helped grantees form community partnerships and implement programs—they found little evidence that these programs effectively reduced youth gang crime.

  Highlights of GAO-09-708 (PDF)

• DOJ has faced difficulties in effectively managing grant programs, and the DOJ IG continues to identify grants management as one of the "top management challenges in the Department of Justice." For example, DOJ IG audits of Recovery Act programs found that the Department’s program offices and bureaus did not always assess the programmatic, financial, and administrative areas of the grants before making awards, and they also did not retain adequate documentation to support their review work.

  DOJIG-07-05 and Top Management and Performance Challenges in the Department of Justice – 2010

• From fiscal years 2006 through 2008, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) awarded $1.2 billion in grant funds to help states and communities reduce juvenile delinquency and victimization and improve their juvenile justice systems. GAO found that although OJJDP has developed performance measures for its grant programs and collects performance measurement data from its grantees, the office is making limited use of these data because it is not verifying these data to ensure their quality. As a result, the office does not use performance data to make resource allocation decisions.

  Full Report of GAO-09-850R (PDF)

• To assess the effectiveness of girls' delinquency programs, OJJDP established a study group whose objectives included identifying effective or promising programs and developing model program models to help inform communities of what works in preventing or reducing girls' delinquency. The group found that few girls' delinquency programs had been studied and that the available studies lacked conclusive evidence of program effectiveness. While the study group's findings are to provide a foundation for moving ahead on a comprehensive program related to girls' delinquency, GAO found that OJJDP had not developed a plan that is documented, is shared with key stakeholders, and includes specific funding requirements and commitments and time frames for meeting its girls' delinquency goals.

  Highlights of GAO-09-721R (PDF)

^ 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.
• As DOJ takes steps to revise performance measures in general, and those for the JAG program in particular, OJP will need to consider key characteristics of successful performance measurement systems and develop a mechanism to validate the integrity of the self–reported performance information grantees provide.

  Full Report of GAO-11-97 (PDF)

• Similarly, to help ensure the quality of performance measurement data submitted by grantees and improve these data to support agency and congressional decision making, OJJDP needs to finalize a data verification approach that includes how it will execute the approach to assess data completeness, accuracy, consistency, and timelines, and establish time frames for implementing the approach consistent with standard practices for program management.

  Full Report of GAO-09-850R (PDF)

• To help ensure that OJJDP meets it goals to identify effective or promising girls delinquency programs and supports the development of program models, OJJDP needs to develop and document a plan that articulates how the office intends to respond to the findings of the girls delinquency study group, includes time frames and specific funding requirements and commitments, and is shared with key stakeholders.

  Full Report of GAO-09-721R (PDF)

^ Back to topKey Reports

Recovery Act

Tax Policy and Administration

Budget and Spending

Juvenile Justice

Juvenile Justice

Community Policing Grants

Department Of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, FY 2010 Performance and Accountability Report, Office of the Inspector General Top Management and Performance Challenges in the Department of Justice; 2010

(Washington D.C.: Nov. 9, 2010).

Top Management and Performance Challenges in the Department of Justice - 2010

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