Tulsa police subject of Justice Department audit

The Tulsa Police Department is the subject of a Department of Justice audit which questions whether TPD provided inaccurate information when applying for a federal grant.

A source at the police department tells KRMG the audit was conducted in the normal course of business, and is standard procedure.

The audit is looking into $248,226 of the $3,505,446 awarded to Tulsa used to hire 18 police officers.

In the introduction to the report, the Justice Department writes:

While COPS performed some limited data validity checks, COPS relied heavily on the accuracy of the data submitted by grant applicants. As a result, we reviewed the application statistics the City of Tulsa submitted and found that five of the application responses were inaccurately reported based on the documentation provided and nine additional application responses lacked supporting documentation.

The City of Tulsa was unable to provide supporting documentation for some responses; therefore, for those responses we conducted our own research and gathered data that we used to determine whether the application response was reasonable.

Although we found supporting documentation for three of nine application responses, we ultimately found them to be inaccurately reported in the City of Tulsa's CHRP application. We also assess the effect of the City of Tulsa's inaccurate application data and determined that it did not appear to have affected the suitability of the award. However, to ensure future awards are not affected by inaccurate data, we recommend that COPS ensure that the City of Tulsa enhance its procedures to ensure it submits accurate data for future award applications.

We also identified $248,226 in dollar-related findings, which included $139,732 in funds to better use and $108,494 in questioned costs related to deficiencies in the City of Tulsa's grant management.

It goes on to indicate TPD and the City of Tulsa may have to give the money back:

Specifically, we found that the City of Tulsa overestimated its budgeted fringe benefit package by $248,226 for police officer vacation and sick leave which was already included in the officer's salary amount. In accordance with the 2009 CHRP Grant Owner's Manual, the City of Tulsa may not utilize this excess funding.

KRMG has contacted TPD,  they say they are reading the lengthy report and preparing a response.