The U.S. Department of Justice has released the results of what it says was a routine audit of Bend nonprofit J Bar J Youth Services over its use of grant money.
In 2020, the Oregon Department of Justice awarded nearly $600,000 to J Bar J, which provides services to victims of human trafficking in the region.
In its report, the U.S. DOJ found the nonprofit could improve in its grant management and has made recommendations for J Bar J to improve on those issues.
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Here is the full release from the U.S. DOJ:
Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz announced today the release of a report on a grant totaling $590,390 awarded in October 2020 by the Oregon Department of Justice (Oregon DOJ) to the J Bar J Youth Services (J Bar J) in Bend, Oregon. The Office of Justice Programs (OJP) awarded grants to the Oregon DOJ, as the state administering agency, to make subawards for the purpose of enhancing crime victim services in the state. As of March 2023, the Oregon DOJ had reimbursed J Bar J a total of $462,866.
The DOJ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found that J Bar J provided services to human trafficking victims of crime throughout central Oregon. However, we determined that J Bar J could improve certain areas of its grant management. Specifically, J Bar J did not include any performance achievements from its subgrantee on performance reports and it commingled its federal funds with state funds. We also found that J Bar J used subaward funds to pay $6,601 in employee bonuses without Oregon DOJ’s approval and did not validate its subgrantee’s invoices to ensure they were supported by timekeeping records. Finally, we found that J Bar J had included the hours worked by grant-funded employees also as volunteer match hours on a match report.
The DOJ OIG made six recommendations to OJP and Oregon DOJ to improve J Bar J’s management of award performance and to remedy $6,601 in dollar-related findings. OJP agreed with the recommendations, Oregon DOJ concurred with all six recommendations, and J Bar J agreed with all six recommendations.
