The Law Enforcement Education Program Is in Serious Financial Disarray

Since 1969, the Law Enforcement Education Program (LEEP) made over $278 million in loans and grants without adequate management controls. The program was originally established by Congress in 1968 the purpose of assisting those working in law enforcement or planning to work in law enforcement to obtain a higher education. Under the program, grants and loans are made to individuals enrolled in law enforcement or criminal justice courses at almost 1,000 junior colleges, colleges, and universities. The grants and loans are canceled without repayment if the recipient works for a publicly supported law enforcement or criminal justice agency for a specified period. Otherwise, the recipient must repay the grant or loan with interest.

A review showed that LEEP has suffered financial and administrative breakdowns because of inadequate controls and inaccurate records. GAO estimates that: (1) 84 percent of the billed recipients did not pay; (2) $18.2 million currently owed LEEP will not be collected; (3) about $2 million that should have been collected was not collected during one quarter of fiscal year 1977; and (4) about 90 percent of the bills to recipients were incorrect. Additionally, GAO found that: (1) payment checks were not promptly deposited and were poorly controlled from the day received until they were deposited in the Federal Reserve Bank; (2) accounting controls for returned certifications were inadequate; (3) forgiveness was granted for employment with agencies which have little to do with criminal justice; (4) loans and grants were not accurately recorded or reported to the Treasury Department; and (5) management did not effectively monitor the schools' performance and compliance with regulations. Consequently, in 1979, the Comptroller General approved the design of a new Law Enforcement Education Program accounting system. The new system should correct many of the accounting problems.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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