Justice Denied

Waste & Mismanagement at the Department of Justice

DOJ Report

Justice Denied: Waste & Mismanagement at the Department of Justice, a new oversight report released by Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK), details over $10 billion in mismanaged, inefficient, duplicative, wasteful, and questionable spending at the Department of Justice (DOJ).

To see the report's highlights, click here.

The report is nearly 90 pages, and identifies over $10 billion in mismanaged, inefficient, duplicative, wasteful, and questionable spending at the DOJ.

• $7.4 billion in grants were not properly closed, allowing this money to simply sit in DOJ accounts. At the same time, $106 million in grants was erroneously distributed to non-compliant grantees who were ineligible to receive the funding.
• A DOJ Inspector General audit found that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), could not account for 76 weapons and 418 laptop computers. On average, ATF loses more than one weapon and seven laptops every month. In addition, the FBI and the DEA could not account for nearly 250 weapons.
• Since 2005, the number of hours that DOJ employees have been charged with being absent without leave increased from more than 93,000 hours per year, to more than 125,000 hours in 2007 – an increase of 34 percent in just two years.
• Despite their known ties to terror and their being under investigation by DOJ, the agency has funded, endorsed, or otherwise legitimized these same Islamist groups and Muslim Brotherhood affiliates in the U.S., even though DOJ itself is currently investigating these groups. For example, DOJ has funded and supported The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate considered by the U.S. government to be a front for terrorist Hamas. Specifically, in 2005, DOJ’s Community Relations Service hosted a seminar in Houston with CAIR entitled “Building Cultural Competency,” and CAIR is a current member of DOJ’s Hate Crimes Task Force in Sacramento, California.
• Several DOJ agencies, including the U.S. Marshals, the DEA, and the FBI, have public affairs staff that act as liaisons to Hollywood movie producers. DOJ’s most notable Hollywood efforts can be found at the FBI, which has had staff working with the entertainment industry since the 1930s. FBI public affairs staff, who are also responsible for working with non-fiction programs like America’s Most Wanted to find and capture criminals, must divide their time to work with Hollywood. Some of their recent efforts have included helping with fictional movies such as The Kingdom, Shooter, and Breach, and television programs like Without A Trace, and CSI.

DOJ Spends $312 on Conferences

The Department of Justice (DOJ) spent at least $312 million over seven years on conference attendance and sponsorship. In 2006, the most recent year for which figures are available, the agency sent 26,000 employees (one fourth of its total workforce) to conferences and spent $46 million in the process.

In 2006, DOJ sent 26,164 employees (one quarter of all its employees) to 2,199 conferences at a cost to taxpayers of over $46 million. These events included:

• A DOJ-sponsored gang-prevention conference at a Waldorf-Astoria Palm Springs resort that cost $300,000, not including grantees’ travel, lodging and meals which could be billed to their anti-gang program accounts;
  $60,000 for cotton candy, popcorn, caramel apples, ice cream, and licorice at an anti-gang conference;
• Over $44,000 for 20 employees (including 15 from the Bureau of Prisons and one from the “library staff”) to attend a “congressional” seminar at a Hawaiian resort; and
• $4-a-piece Swedish meatballs, served along with butterfly shrimp and coconut lobster skewers, at a $60,000 Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) conference “networking session.”

Outrageous DOJ Earmarks

The Department of Justice appropriations for FY 2006 included an estimated 1,409 earmarks valued at more than $869 million, according to the Office of the Inspector General. There were 1,505 items in the earmark disclosure list for DOJ with a combined dollar value of $529.7 million in 2008.

• A 2008 DOJ earmark provided $223,000 for the Milwaukee Public Schools (MSP) of Wisconsin “to continue safe summer sites.” According to the school system, 2008 “safe summer programs” include video games, music, dance, bowling, arts and crafts, field trips, “enrichment classes,” as well as reduced price tickets for attractions like Six Flags.
• In 2008, the state of Vermont received two DOJ earmarks costing $848,350, which were intended to be used for at-risk youth programs. Several of the over thirty teen centers that will receive funding through these earmarks have suggested the funding could be used to prevent “obesity,” build a skateboard park, or provide activities such as pie-making classes and guitar lessons for the kids.
• “Last year, Miami Beach’s Gang and Drug Prevention Program, known as the Teen Club, used part of a $50,000 federal grant to take members of the club white water rafting in Tennessee,” according to the Miami Herald.

DOJ Grant Programs’ Silly Spending

The federal “Weed and Seed” program provides funding to local “Weed and Seed Communities” for the purpose of reducing crime and “improving the neighborhood.” In FY 2008, the program received $32 million and Congress has appropriated more than $252 million for it over the past five years. Some funded activities featured below may or may not have advanced the mission of DOJ:

• In North Carolina, a free “Shred-a-thon," where locals are invited to bring up to one box load of old bank statements, bills, and outdated personal papers to be transformed into mulch for the Community Peace was funded in part by the West Asheville District Weed and Seed Grant.
• This summer in Ohio, the Youngstown North Side Weed and Seed offered lawn mower maintenance sessions to youths from the North Side With this program, Rick George, associate director of the Center for Human Service Development at Youngstown State University, hopes to give area youth the knowledge and tools to start cutting grass as a job and as a way to clean up their neighborhood.
• “Dance instruction and performance opportunities” and “Nutrition Workshops” are listed as components of the Prevention, Intervention and Treatment strategy is to address and identified [sic] risk factors in the target areas” for Atlanta, Georgia’s Weed and Seed program. Among the accomplishments touted by the city’s Weed and Seed program include renovation of dilapidated businesses in target areas including Ardens Gardens, a fruit drink company, which has brought at least 7 new jobs and reactivated a once vacant building.
• The City of Modesto Parks, Recreation and Neighborhoods Department’s Maddux Youth Center and the Paradise South Weed and Seed Project presented a break dance competition and offered Hip-Hop/Modern Jazz dance classes. “The Hip-Hop and Modern Jazz dance class will focus on the fundamentals of contemporary dance techniques, including stretching, center floor techniques, movement across the floor, progressions and dance routines,” according to the city.

While many of these events may have been fun or even educational recreational events for children, adolescents and teenagers, it is difficult to demonstrate how these differ from activities funded by other federal grants or how they may have actually had a positive impact on reducing crime in an area.

To read the full report, click here.

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These Findings Demand a Response:

Senator Coburn sent a letter to the GAO asking them to look into DOJ’s taxpayer-funded recreational activities such as white water rafting, field trips, summer camp, talent shows, dance and hip-hop classes, and even the construction of a skateboard park.

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