The U.S. Justice Department will “administratively close” audit findings and compliance review of the ASG Criminal Justice Planning Agency (CJPA) after the federal agency is satisfied that American Samoa has put in place sufficient protocol to address federal concerns during a review more than two years ago.

As reported by Samoa News in March last year, the USDOJ’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) review of financial assistance awarded to CJPA  found non-compliance of the agency dealing with “federal civil rights laws”. The finding, which was relayed to CJPA in January last year, followed a May 2012 compliance review of CJPA and other similar agencies throughout the U.S.

The focus of this review, as well as the on-site visit to the territory, was to determine both compliance with applicable federal civil rights laws and the agency’s monitoring procedures for ensuring the compliance of sub-recipients with these laws.

Of particular interest to the OCR was CJPA’s compliance with the federal regulations of Equal Treatment for Faith-Based Organizations. OCR also conducted a review of Catholic Social Services and the non-profit group Teen Challenge, both sub-grantees, or sub-recipients for CJPA. (See Samoa News stories on Mar. 15, 20 and 21, 2013 for full details of the OCR review and recommendations).

Michael L. Alston, director for OCR, in a Mar. 5, 2014 letter informed CJPA executive director Keith Gebauer, that since the issuance of the OCR report, “CJPA has diligently worked to implement our recommendations.”

“We especially commend the agency (CJPA) for its recent efforts to implement procedures for handling discrimination complaints involving sub-recipients,” he said.

The OCR compliance review report of Jan. 2013, stated that, in monitoring sub-recipients, “the CJPA does not evaluate whether sub-recipients have policies, procedures, or protocols regarding the handling of employment or services discrimination complaints they receive.”

Moreover, CJPA did not determine if sub-grantees provided any notification to their employees and beneficiaries about sub-recipient processes for handling discrimination complaints or available avenues for filing civil rights complaints.

In his Mar. 4, 2014 letter, Alston told Gebauer that after thoroughly reviewing all of the measures undertaken by CJPA to implement OCR’s recommendations, the OCR concludes that the agency “has sufficient protocols in place to monitor the civil rights compliance of its sub-recipients.”

“Therefore, we will administratively close this matter,” he said and thanked CJPA for its continued cooperation during the course of the compliance review. 

Alston’s letter was included in the CJPA’s second quarter performance report for fiscal year 2014. The performance report also noted the closure of this matter and Gebauer thanked OCR attorney Christopher Zubowicz for his assistance.

Gebauer also thanked CJPA staff and its sub-grantees for their hard work to ensure the necessary changes and modifications were completed in accordance with OCR requirements.

Samoa News should point out that Gebauer took over the CJPA leadership post in January last year, when the Lolo Administration took office.