Foreword

We hope you find this guide useful and informative. If you have any questions or comments, please contact your appropriate DOJ Funding Source.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has three primary grant-making components, the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) and the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office). The mission of OJP is to provide innovative leadership to federal, state, local, and tribal justice systems by disseminating state-of-the-art knowledge and practices across America, and providing grants for the implementation of these crime fighting strategies. The mission of OVW is to provide federal leadership in developing the national capacity to reduce violence against women, and administer justice for and strengthen services to victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assaults, and stalking. The mission of the COPS Office is to advance the practice of community policing by the nation’s state, local, territory, and tribal law enforcement agencies through information and resources.

These three grant-making components provide Federal leadership in developing the nation’s capacity to prevent and control crime, administer justice, and assist crime victims. They also provide policy guidance, financial control, and support services to their recipients in the areas of grants, accounting, and financial management. Each grant-making component conducts programmatic monitoring through site visits and desk reviews, and provides technical assistance and training to recipients. Additionally, OJP’s Office of the Chief Financial Officer (OCFO) conducts financial monitoring through site visits and desk reviews, and provides training to OJP’s recipients in the Grants Financial Management Training Seminars.

The DOJ Grants Financial Guide (the “Guide”) serves as the primary reference manual to assist OJP, OVW, and COPS Office award recipients in fulfilling their fiduciary responsibility to safeguard grant funds and ensure funds are used for the purposes for which they were awarded. It compiles a variety of laws, rules and regulations that affect the financial and administrative management of your award. There may be instances where the requirements may differ among the three grant-making components; to the extent possible, those differences are spelled out throughout this Guide. However, recipients (and subrecipients) should refer to their award terms and conditions to determine the specific requirements that apply to their award. We have provided references to the underlying laws and regulations as much as possible.

This Guide should be the starting point for all recipients and subrecipients of DOJ grants and cooperative agreements in ensuring the effective day-to-day management of awards.

For additional information on grants management, please visit the website of the Results-Oriented Accountability for Grants Council on Financial Assistance Reform at https://www.performance.gov/CAP/grants/. The Government Printing Office also maintains electronic copies of the Code of Federal Regulations at https://ecfr.federalregister.gov/ and e-CFR at https://www.ecfr.gov.

We are pleased to respond to any questions not covered by this Guide and welcome suggestions to improve the utility of the Guide and its content. Please feel free to contact the OCFO’s Customer Service Center at 1-800- 458-0786, OVW Grants Financial Management Division at 1-888-514-8556, or COPS Office Response Center at 1-800-421-6770 with any financial management questions or suggested revisions. In addition, questions and comments can also be directed to the OCFO via e-mail at ask.ocfo@usdoj.gov, OVW via email at OVW.GFMD@usdoj.gov, or COPS Office via email at askCopsRC@usdoj.gov.