The Department of Justice’s Inspector General has included Grants Management on its list of Top Management Challenges in the Department of Justice. Several audits have found some grant administration difficulties in Justice’s handling of the $3.5 billion appropriated to Department grant programs in 2005. There are some familiar themes here:

• Clearer guidelines needed by grantees
• Stronger oversight of grantee’s use of funds
• More information should be collected from some grantees to provide quality assurance

The IG also gives the Office of Justice Programs gets an “attaboy” for fully automating the request for funding and financial reporting processes.