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Federal Grants: More Can Be Done to Improve Weed and Seed Program Management

GGD-99-110 Published: Jul 16, 1999. Publicly Released: Jul 16, 1999.
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Highlights

Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the effectiveness of the Department of Justice's (DOJ) Weed and Seed Program, focusing on how: (1) the program is managed by DOJ's Executive Office for Weed and Seed (EOWS); (2) EOWS monitors local Weed and Seed sites to ensure that grant requirements are met; (3) EOWS determines when sites have become self-sustaining; and (4) EOWS and selected sites are measuring program results.

Recommendations

Recommendations for Executive Action

Agency Affected Recommendation Status
Department of Justice The Attorney General should direct the Director of the Executive Office of Weed and Seed to develop an adequate internal control to ensure that the basis and rationale for new and existing site qualification for funding decisions are always fully documented.
Closed – Implemented
The Executive Office of Weed and Seed Policy and Procedures Manual is under development. DOJ reported that this manual will include criteria and basic requirements for site qualification for funding eligibility. In addition, DOJ reported that written internal control procedures for making and documenting site selection decisions are being refined. EOWS implemented this recommendation.
Department of Justice The Attorney General should direct the Director of the Executive Office of Weed and Seed to improve program monitoring to ensure that sites meet the grant requirement of submitting progress reports, and that EOWS site visits are documented.
Closed – Implemented
The Executive Office of Weed and Seed reports that all progress reports are now up to date. New approaches will be explored to address a chronic problem of grantees not submitting program progress reports in a timely manner such as restricting access to funding where a grantee continually fails to submit progress reports in a timely manner. EOWS implemented this recommendation.
Department of Justice The Attorney General should direct the Director of the Executive Office of Weed and Seed to develop criteria for determining when sites are self-sustaining and when to reduce or withdraw program funding.
Closed – Not Implemented
The Executive Office of Weed and Seed reported that a quantitative measure of self-sustainment is problematic, and specifying a particular level of resources is likely to be arbitrary. However, it will explore ways to help sites measure their progress toward self-sustainment, recognizing all the methodological difficulties.
Department of Justice The Attorney General should direct the Director of the Executive Office of Weed and Seed to develop additional performance measures that track program outcomes.
Closed – Implemented
The Executive Office of Weed and Seed (EOWS) reported that it took several actions to expand its efforts to measure performance, including program measures that track program outcomes. In fiscal year (FY) 2002, EOWS awarded a contract to the Justice Research and Statistics Association (JRSA) to collect outcome-focused data. EOWS is working on another award to JRSA for more analytical work in response to DOJ's request for collection of more outcome-based information. In FY 2001, EOWS told GAO that it had revised its Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) form to collect and measure program outcomes and, in response to a GAO request, to collect information on funds that help sites to implement the Weed and Seed Strategy. In FY 2001-2002, Weed and Seed grant applicants received training on how GPRA data is to be provided to EOWS. This training is to be continued in future years.

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Topics

Community development programsCrime preventionFederal aid for criminal justiceFederal grantsGrant monitoringInternal controlsLaw enforcementPerformance measuresProgram graduationPolice