| No. |
Weekly Update Report Data (Sheet 2 of 2) Version 1.1
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| Short bulleted list of the major actions taken to date |
Short bulleted list of the major planned actions |
| 1 |
Office of Justice Programs (OJP) 15_0402: 1) On March 19, 2009, OJP announced 12 Recovery Act competitive solicitations. 2) OJP conducted outreach efforts with numorous officials to discuss Recovery Act funding: a) The Director of the Office of Communications (OCOM) met with the Portsmouth, VA mayor and the city manager; the Davenport, IA city manager and the City Manager of Grand Rapids, MI. b) Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) staff met with Lane County and Eugene, OR officials, the Executive Assistant District Attorney for Queens District Attorney’s Office, representatives from Stanislaus County, CA and Wellington Village, FL, and held a conference call with the Special Advisor to the Ohio Attorney General. c) Officials (mayor, police chief and city manager) from Modesto and Oxnard, CA met with staff from BJA, OCOM, COPS, and the Office for Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. d) Members of the BJA and OCOM staff met with Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon. e) Acting AAG Robinson participated in a webcast about Recovery Act funding sponsored by the National Conference of Mayors. f) Acting AAG Robinson participated in the White House conference for City and County. |
OJP 15_0402: 1) The Office for Victims of Crime competitive Recovery Act solicitation – National Field-Generated Training, Technical Assistance and Demonstration Project – will close on March 26. |
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Office of Justice Programs (OJP) 15_0402 (continued): representatives. g) An email was sent to all the United States Attorneys providing them with a list of open and forthcoming Recovery Act solicitations. h) BJA held two regional conference calls with the Law Enforcement Coordinating Committee representatives from the U.S. Attorneys’ Offices. 3) The Senior Policy Advisor for Tribal Affairs attended a meeting, along with other federal agency representatives, with the White House Office of Intergovernmental Affairs Tribal Liaison to discuss outreach efforts to the tribes on Recovery Act funding. 4) On March 19, 2009, two OIG teams conducted entrance conferences with OJP staff concerning their Recovery Act oversight of the OVC and BJA Recovery Act grant programs. |
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| 2 |
Office of Violence Against Women (OVW) 15_0411: 1) Recovery Act Tribal Governments and Tribal Coalitions Solicitations were posted on OVW Recovery Act homepage. 2) Three pre-application conference calls for the Recovery Act Transitional Housing Program were made. Due to demands, additional pre-application conference calls are being scheduled. 3) Conference calls with experts from the field were conducted to develop a Recovery Act Technical Assistance plan for grantees. 4) FAQs on Recovery Act Programs were updated on OVW Recovery Act homepage. |
OVW 15_0411: 1) OVW will sponsor four additional pre-application conference calls with Recovery Act Transitional Housing applicants. 2) In response to March 24 Deadline, OVW will begin receiving, logging-in, and processing applications and making awards for the Recovery Act STOP Formula Grants and the Recovery Act Grants to State Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Coalitions. |
| 3 |
Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) 15_0412: 1) The COPS Hiring Recovery Program solicitation opened on March 16th. 2) Attorney General Holder announced the opening of the CHRP solicitation at the National League of Cities’ General Session. 3) COPS worked with OPA and staff from Attorney General Holder’s office to prepare remarks for the Attorney General’s appearance before the National League of Cities. 4) COPS Staff addressed the National League of Cities Public Safety and Crime Prevention Policy and Advocacy Committee on crime and the economy and the CHRP Program. 5) Acting Director Tim Quinn participated yesterday in a webcast hosted by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. 6) COPS participated in a conference call hosted by Senator Menendez with law enforcement agencies throughout New Jersey. 7) COPS Staff met with officials from the City of San Leandro; Butte County, California Yakima, Washington; Rock Hill, South Carolina; Oxnard, California; Lane County, Oregon, Brawley, California; Dallas, Texas, and Stanislaus County to brief them on the CHRP Program. 8) COPS briefed Senate staff on the CHRP Program. The briefing was hosted by the Senate CJS Appropriations Subcommittee. |
COPS 15_0412: 1) COPS Staff will begin review of application data to validate submissions and "clean" data (e.g., misspellings, etc.). 2) At the request of Senator Barbara Mikulski, COPS Staff will brief capital area law enforcement officials on our CHRP Program. 3) At the request of Congressman Rush Holt, COPS Staff will participate in a grants workshop in Monroe County, New Jersey. |
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Office of the Inspector General (OIG) 15_0326: 1) The OIG Audit Division began audit work in the Recovery Act programs funded in the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS), and the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW). Within OJP, audit teams are working in the Bureau of Justice Assistance, Bureau of Justice Statistics, and the Office for Victims of Crime. These audits are anticipated to continue over the life spans of the funded programs, with interim reports issued as necessary. 2) At the request of COPS, the Audit Division provided comments on materials developed for use in the COPS Hiring Recovery Program (CHRP). 3) The OIG Investigations Division met with COPS Office of General Counsel to discuss specific fraud risks of CHRP funding, developed risk specific training materials for OJP and OVW staffs, and established training dates for Fraud Awareness Briefings, which will have a special emphasis on the risks associated with the Recovery Act funding. |
OIG 15_0326: 1) The National Procurement Fraud Task Force’s Grant Fraud Committee, which is chaired by DOJ’s Inspector General, is hosting a forum on March 26, 2009, to discuss grant issues that OIGs and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) should consider as agencies distribute funds under the Recovery Act. A similar forum recently was held involving OIGs and the GAO to discuss issues relating to procurements under the Recovery Act, and several OIGs suggested that a forum focusing on grant issues could be useful. 2) At the forum on grants, the DOJ OIG will discuss issues relating to the measures OIGs are taking with regard to Recovery Act funds within their agencies, such as providing advice on the front end to agency grantors while maintaining the necessary independence to later audit a grant program, conducting "real-time" audits and issuing reports in an expedited manner, coordinating efforts between investigations and audit divisions, reaching out to state and local oversight agencies, targeting grant recipients for auditing, and any other issues that the attendees would like to discuss relating to grants. The meeting is intended to allow oversight agencies to share ideas and |
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OIG 15_0326 (continued): approaches to these issues so that each agency can each improve its own efforts at providing effecting oversight of Recovery Act grant funds. 3) The OIG Evaluation &Inspections Division initiated a review of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives’ (ATF) Project Gunrunner.The review will examine the ATF’s current and planned activities for Project Gunrunner. In addition, the Evaluation & Inspections Division is sending a review team member to interview the ATF Project runrunner staff assigned to the Gun Desk at the DEA’s El Paso Intelligence Center. |
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Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) 15_0699: 1) On March 16, 2009, ATF issued a Request for Quotation (RFQ) on Federal Business Opportunities for vehicles in support of Project Gunrunner. |
ATF 15_0699: 1) ATF to award contract for vehicle purchases by March 27, 2009. 2) ATF and GSA to identify potential sites and rent costs for gunrunner teams.
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