San Francisco officials have agreed to pay back $5.2 million in federal grant money the city now admits it was not entitled to under a U.S. program to compensate local law enforcement for fighting border crime.
The U.S. Justice Department audited its Southwest Border Prosecution Initiative grant program last year and concluded that San Francisco - through a private consultant - had applied for money it was not entitled to claim for prosecuting cases for federal authorities and incarcerating defendants.
Rather than basing its claims on specific cases that federal officials referred for local prosecution, as required by the program guidelines, the city and its consultant determined that the city should be paid for 30 percent of all drug-related prosecutions.
Under that formula, San Francisco received reimbursement for 2,300 cases. The city agreed this week that it was entitled to money for only about 5 percent of that total.
The city got $3.7 million in fiscal 2006 alone under the program, more than any other local jurisdiction in the country.
With the audit findings in hand, U.S. Attorney Joseph Russoniello sent a letter to the city in February demanding the $5.7 million that the city received from 2004 to 2007.
After initially disputing the audit's findings, the city agreed in February to pay $2.7 million immediately and sought more time to come up with a list of cases that federal authorities had actually referred to San Francisco agencies.
Federal officials reviewed that list and determined that only 126 cases were valid under program guidelines. That meant San Francisco was entitled to just $522,000 out of the $5.7 million it got in grants.
San Francisco officials have now agreed to pay back an additional $2.5 million, making a total of $5.2 million that the city will have returned to the federal government.
www.sfgate.com
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
