§10263 Oversight and Accountability

Summary

All Department of Justice grants under this Act must follow rules for audits, eligibility, and spending. Starting in fiscal year 2016 and every year after, the Justice Department’s Inspector General will audit grant recipients to try to stop waste, fraud, and abuse. The Inspector General decides how many grantees to audit each year. If an audit finds that a grantee used money for unauthorized costs and that finding is not fixed within 12 months of the final audit report, the grantee is “unresolved” and cannot get grant money under this Act for the next 2 fiscal years after that 12‑month period. The Attorney General must give priority to applicants who, in the 3 fiscal years before applying, did not have any unresolved audit findings. If a barred grantee is wrongly paid anyway, the Attorney General must put an equal amount into the U.S. Treasury’s General Fund and try to get the money back from the grantee. A “nonprofit organization” here means a group that is a 501(c)(3) and tax‑exempt under 501(a). Such nonprofits cannot hold money offshore to avoid the tax in section 511(a) of the tax code. Nonprofits that use special procedures to justify executive pay must explain their process, comparables, and who reviewed it when they apply; the Attorney General will make that information public if asked. No more than 7.5 percent of authorized money may be used for DOJ salaries and admin. No one may spend over $20,000 of DOJ money on a conference without prior written approval by the Deputy Attorney General (or designee), including a full cost estimate; the Deputy Attorney General must report approved conference spending yearly to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees. Grant funds may not be used to lobby about grant awards to any government officials; a violator must repay the grant and is barred from future grants for at least 5 years. Before awarding grants, the Attorney General must check for duplicate funding; if duplicates are given, the Attorney General must report the duplicates, amounts, and reasons to the Senate and House Judiciary Committees.