WASHINGTON — Lawmakers and Justice Department auditors are examining millions of dollars in crime-fighting grants awarded by the agency last year in an effort to determine whether personal ties may have influenced the process, according to sources familiar with the inquiries.
The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee has interviewed current and former employees in the Justice Department’s grant-making units about whether officials disregarded independent reviews and steered awards to favored groups, the sources said.
The Justice Department’s inspector general, meanwhile, is looking into allegations of an improper hire, according to those who have been contacted because of the probe.
Confusion over the grants and the process under which they were distributed have been the subject of complaints within the Justice Department and the law enforcement community. Now members of Congress and watchdog groups are calling on investigators to expand their inquiry into the Byrne Grant program, Washington’s primary effort to support local crime-fighting nationwide.
“Grant programs are a great tool for distributing federal funds, but only if the process is truly open, fair and competitive,” said Sen. Claire Mc Caskill, D-Mo., who is demanding more information from the Justice Department.
Justice doles out more than $2 billion in grants each year to groups such as Neighborhood Watch and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. The merit-based system is supposed to reward the most innovative approaches to attacking gangs, drug crime and youth violence.
