U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

 

Audit Report

 

OFFICE OF COMMUNITY ORIENTED POLICING SERVICES

GRANTS TO THE CITY OF TACOMA POLICE DEPARTMENT

WASHINGTON

GR-90-98-012

MARCH 1998

 

 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

 

The Office of the Inspector General, Audit Division, has completed an audit of five grants awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), to the City of Tacoma Police Department (TPD), Washington. The TPD received a grant of $375,000 to hire 5 sworn officers under Phase I, $300,000 to hire 4 sworn officers under the Accelerated Hiring, Education and Deployment Program (AHEAD), $1,575,000 to hire 21 sworn officers under the Universal Hiring Program (UHP), $104,043 to redeploy 6.3 sworn officer full-time equivalents (FTEs) into community policing under the Making Officer Redeployment Effective program for 1995 (MORE 95) and $77,744 to redeploy 3.1 sworn officer FTEs into community policing for 1997 under MORE 96. The purpose of the additional officers under each of the grant programs is to enhance community policing efforts.

In brief, our audit determined that the TPD violated the following grant conditions:

- Charged unallowable costs totaling $4,833 to the Phase I grant and $18,230 to the AHEAD/UHP grant. These unallowable costs consisted of the duplicate billing of salaries and benefits.

- Charged unallowable costs totaling $202,074 to the AHEAD/UHP grant. These unallowable costs consisted of preaward salaries and benefits.

- Charged $3,665 of unsupported costs to the Phase I grant and $1,502 of unsupported costs to the AHEAD/UHP grant. These unsupported costs were the differences between the financial records and the requests for reimbursements that the TPD could not explain.

- The Tacoma City Council has failed to provide the matching funds for two of the positions under the UHP portion of the AHEAD/UHP grant. TPD has not informed COPS of this decision. COPS should deobligate $150,000 for the two remaining positions.

- The TPD was overpaid $5,393 for the Phase I grant and $16,639 for the AHEAD/UHP grant because of a LOCES billing error.

- The TPD was unable to document the redeployment of 6.3 officers (FTEs) to community policing under the MORE 95 grant, resulting in $95,869 of unsupported costs. The TPD does not plan on using the remaining grant funds ($8,174); therefore, $8,174 should be deobligated and the funds be put to better use.

- The TPD was unable to document the redeployment of 3.1 officers (FTEs) to community policing under the MORE 96 grant, resulting in $66,300 of unsupported costs.

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