Audit of the Office of Justice Programs Victim Assistance Grants Awarded to the Arizona Department of Public Safety, Phoenix, Arizona

• NCJ Number: 309327
• Date Published: March 2024
• Length: 41 pages

Annotation

This report presents the results of an audit of the Arizona Department of Publish Safety (Arizona DPS).

Abstract

This audit of the Arizona Department of Publish Safety (Arizona DPS) identified several areas where the Arizona DPS needs to improve administration and oversight of its victim assistance program. The objective was to evaluate how Arizona DPS designed and implemented its crime victim assistance program. To accomplish this objective, the authors assessed performance in the following areas of grant management: (1) grant program planning and execution, (2) program requirements and performance reporting, (3) grant financial management, and (4) monitoring of subrecipients. The authors concluded that Arizona DPS distributed its Crime Victims Fund (CVF) funding to organizations that provide direct services to victims within Arizona. In particular, it needs to improve its adherence to program requirements for priority allocations of funding, as well as subrecipient monitoring. Further, Arizona DPS needs to institute procedures to ensure reviews of subrecipient audits required under the Single Audit Act. The audit also found that Arizona DPS allocated administrative expenditures using a reasonable methodology but did not notify the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) of administrative expenditures to be used for training. Finally, the researchers concluded that Arizona DPS lacked procedures related to federal financial reports (FFR) and matching requirements and needs to enhance its policy related to FFRs and matching funds. The report contains seven recommendations for OJP to assist Arizona DPS in improving its grant management and administration.