Audit of the Office of Justice Programs' Civil Rights Complaint Process

• NCJ Number: 309375
• Date Published: September 2023
• Length: 32 pages

Annotation

This paper reports on the Justice Department’s audit of the Office for Civil Rights solicited, received, and reviewed complaints of unlawful discrimination by DOJ grant recipients; it describes the Office of the Inspector General’s audit approach, objectives, results, conclusions, and recommendations; and includes four appendix documents.

Abstract

This report presents the Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of the Inspector General’s (OIG’s) audit of the Office of Justice Programs’ (OJP) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) solicited, received, and reviewed unlawful discrimination complaints from recipients of DOJ grants and cooperative agreements from 2019 through 2022. OJP OCR aims to ensure that financial aid recipients who obtain funding from the Office of Violence Against Women (OVW), the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office), and OJP’s program offices comply with civil rights laws and nondiscrimination provisions. This report presents the OIG’s audit approach, results, conclusion, and recommendations. It provides a review of the OCR complaint process, Title VI, and Safe Streets Act enforcement efforts. Audit results provide a discussion of the OIG’s findings and recommendations, including methods for better allowing complainants to file complaints through enhanced information awareness and clarification of the complaint intake process. The Appendix documents include: Objective, Scope and Methodology; Civil Rights Laws and Nondiscrimination Provisions; the OJP’s response to the Draft Audit Report; and the OIG’s analysis and summary of actions required for closing the Audit Report