As I wrote in this prior post, when it comes to the federal dough (Recovery Act “stimulus” funds) flowing into local law enforcement agencies via the 2009 JAG grant program, it sure would be nice to know if the correct state and federal procedures to add these new monies for budgetary spending were used anywhere, be it here in the Granite State, or throughout the country. As I have noted, following on a botched sheriff vacancy appointment process, a failed budget procedure resulting in the first default in history, an improper supplemental budget attempt, and the head administrator’s conviction and jailing for theft of public funds and equipment, Belknap County continues to defy the letter of applicable state and federal law with its present grant application process.
Reading the actual document itself, the JAG says that the applicant
“must make the grant application available for review by its governing body not fewer than 30 days before the application is submitted to BJA.”
The May 7th Daily Sun reported that at their meeting the day before,
“all the commissioners were concerned that they could not read the grant application itself. Wiggin explained that the application process was conducted entirely on-line, making it impossible to provide the commissioners with a copy of the document until after it was actually submitted to the justice Department.”
The application was submitted on 11 May, 2009, and copies were not made available, according to a conversation with Administrator Debra Shackett, to County Commissioners until May 19th. Hardly “not fewer than 30 days before the application” was submitted. In fact, the Commissioners—who are not even the legal governing body—didn’t see it until a week AFTER. This hardly comes close to following the letter, or the spirit, of the oversight and accountability supposedly called by the law guiding the grant.
Beyond that, the other big piece to this is the public TRANSPARENCY angle. In reading the documents, you discover the JAG calls for transparency. The big question is what happens when it is ignored, as is the case here in Belknap?
Other than a few stories about goodies coming courtesy of the generous federal government (using borrowed money our great grandchildren will still be paying for through inherited national debt), the public remained unaware that the JAG/ Recovery Act clearly states that the application
“must include a statement that the application was made public and that, to the extent of applicable law or established procedure, an opportunity to comment was provided to the citizens and neighborhood or community organizations.”
That never happened.
At this time, after sending materials to county, state, and over TWENTY federal officials and agencies via fax, certified mail, email, and FEDEX, we await their response. You would think that SOMEBODY would care about what’s happening with this grant, given the track record involving Belknap County and the last time it received substantial monies from the Feds. You see, as Belknap County botches the present grant process, a recently revealed audit of a prior one completed by the federal government revealed badly flawed– most likel, illegal– methods were employed:
Bureau of Justice Assistance Grants Awarded to the County of Belknap
Laconia, New HampshireAudit Report GR-70-09-002
January 2009
Office of the Inspector General——————————————————————————–
Executive Summary
The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of the Inspectr General, Audit Division, has completed an audit of the Edward Byrne Memorial Justice Assistance Grants, Numbers 2004 DD BX 1171, 2005-DJ-BX-0852, and 2006-DJ-BX-1044, in the amount of $520,901 awarded by the Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), to the County of Belknap, New Hampshire (Belknap). The purpose of the first grant was to create and support a regional law enforcement special operations group. The second grant was to pay for law enforcement officer overtime related to fugitive apprehension in Belknap County. The third and final grant in our audit was to be used to acquire a thermal imaging device.
The objective of this audit was to determine whether reimbursements claimed for costs under the grants were allowable, supported, and in accordance with applicable laws, regulations, guidelines, and terms and conditions of the grant. We also assessed grantee program performance in meeting grant objectives and overall accomplishments.
We determined the sheriff of Belknap County inappropriately and without prior knowledge and authorization from BJA, effectively transferred the management of these grants, including the financial responsibilities, to a nonprofit organization. We further determined this organization lacked adequate internal controls, including a financial accounting system, and was not audited during the period these grants were active. We also identified deficiencies in the financial and progress reporting for the grants.
These items are discussed in detail in the Findings and Recommendations section of the report. Our audit objectives, scope, and methodology are discussed in Appendix I.
We discussed the results of our audit with Belknap County officials and have included their comments in the report, as applicable. In addition, we provided Belknap County and OJP a copy of the draft report and their responses can be found in Appendices II and III. Our analysis of both responses, as well as a summary of actions necessary to close the recommendations, can be found in Appendix IV of this report.
While this is only the executive summary of the full report, you can get a sense of how damning indeed the investigation was of the most recent past grant process. In fact, one can perhaps speculate that this could have been what led the former sheriff to resign prematurely. Beyond that, you would think that this would red flag future grants involving Belknap County and that Belknap County would be extra cautious in its approach, and the Feds would take all questions involving them seriously.
As we await their response, the necessary steps in preparation for possible litigation have been taken. Maybe we can’t do anything about the millions and millions of wasted federal stimulus dollars as a whole, but we just might stop a little piece of it in our corner of the world. Why make laws and rules if you’re not going to follow them?