One year later, OJP still facing grant management problems

Justice Department Stresses Fair Competition In Anticrime Grants
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The Obama administration is much more transparent than was the Bush administration about disclosing where the billions of dollars on grants to criminal justice agencies are going, reports National Public Radio. Some previous grant recipients are unhappy about the open process. Laurie Robinson, Assistant Attorney General for Justice Programs, tells NPR, "I've really laid down the law about the importance of competing grants so that we ensure that people who are interested in applying for grants from the Department of Justice all have an equal chance."

Robinson tells applicants who were used to getting grants year after year almost automatically that "it's a new era." Discussing new priorities in the Obama administration, Robinson cited $100 million allocated for prisoner re-entry programs and an emphasis on anticrime programs that have scientifically-validated results.

National Public Radio

Not surprising. In OIG Gleen Fine's report in November 2009, he outlined the top management challenges in the Justice Department last year and grant managment in the Office of Justice Program division is still a problem:

DOJ Top Management Challenges

P. 17:

7. Grant Management: The OIG has identified grant management as a significant challenge for the Department since inception of this list, not only in terms of making timely awards of billions of dollars of grant funds but also in maintaining proper oversight over grantees to ensure the funds are used as intended. This challenge is particularly acute for the Department in 2009 because in addition to managing over $3 billion in grant funding from its regular fiscal year appropriation, the same grant administrators also must oversee disbursement and oversight of $4 billion in grants under the Recovery Act. The challenges the Department faces in ensuring the integrity of Recovery Act funds are described in a separate challenge, while this section focuses on the continuing challenge the Department faces in ensuring the overall efficiency and integrity of its grant programs.
Read more on the OIG report. Click here.

Oh, and some bit a good news that was reported back in July 2008. And I don't know if this amendment was rescinded. Let's hope not:

The Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriations, Rep. David Obey (D-WI), is taking measures to ensure that DOJ will no longer have the "discretion" to hand out grants to their favorite recipients counter to peer-review recommendations. Rep. Obey has offered an amendment requiring that:

The Attorney General, and the head of any entity in the Department of Justice, in making grants in the exercise of authority under any discretionary grant program shall--

(1) conduct a peer review process, and
(2) adhere strictly to the peer review rankings made.

More from Project of Government Oversight website. Click here.