U.S. Attorneys: Better Models Can Reduce Resource Disparities Among Offices
GGD-91-39
Published: Mar 06, 1991. Publicly Released: Mar 18, 1991.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Justice's (DOJ) process for allocating attorneys among the 94 U.S. Attorney offices.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Justice | The Attorney General should direct the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys to implement a quantitative work-load model for gauging the work loads of U.S. Attorney offices that is sensitive to variations in the time requirements of different types of cases. |
The Attorney General has formed a working group to develop a new staffing model for allocating future positions to U.S. Attorneys' Offices. The model will rely on crime indicators external to the U.S. Attorneys' Offices to the greatest extent possible. For example, indicators of tax fraud in a U.S. Attorney district would include the amounts of collections and refunds, and indicators of the presence of immigration crime would include the number of border crossings and estimates of the illegal alien population.
|
| Department of Justice | The Attorney General should direct the Executive Office for U.S. Attorneys to adopt a resource allocation model that responds to resource disparities among U.S. Attorney offices identified by the work-load model and can be used in conjunction with judgmental factors to allocate additional attorney positions. |
A new model for resource allocation is being developed. It takes into account factors in addition to those identified by GAO in its 1991 report.
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