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Bureau of Justice Assistance Recovery Act Program: Assistance to Rural Law Enforcement To Combat Crime and Drugs

NCJ Number
250104
Date Published
June 2011
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This report by the U.S Justice Department's Office of Justice Program's (OJP's) Office of Audit, Assessment, and Management (OAAM), which has oversight of OJP's grant monitoring, assesses the application review and award process used by the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) for the FY 2009 Recovery Act Program Assistance to Rural Law Enforcement to Combat Crime and Drugs (RLE program).
Abstract
This assessment's objective was to determine whether BJA's award process provided for "fair and open competition" for RLE applicants. Specifically, OAAM evaluated the award process to determine 1) whether RLE program grants were made in compliance with established award process policies and procedures and 2) whether all eligible applicants had the same opportunity to compete for RLE funding. Overall, the assessment determined that BJA's award process for the RLE program provided for fair and open competition for applicants in all five areas of the assessment. BJA completed the award process within the narrow time frame allotted for granting Recovery Act awards; however, the assessment identified opportunities for BJA to improve its documentation throughout the award process and to provide more specific information to the applicants rejected for grant awards. This report offers recommendations for addressing these issues. BJA's comments on these recommendations in the draft report are included in this report, along with OAAM's response to BJA's comments on the recommendations. The assessment examined BJA's solicitation for RLE program awards, the review of applications for eligibility and compliance with BMR (Basic Minimum Requirements), management of the peer reviewers, the peer review process and results, and the funding recommendations and awards. 1 table and appended supplementary materials