Review of the Office of Community Services Grant to the Haitian Task Force

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

This final report presents the results of our review of the Administration for Children and Families' (ACF) oversight of an Office of Community Services (OCS) $472,500 discretionary grant awarded to the Haitian Task Force, Inc (HTF) located in Miami, Florida. The report points out that the grantee failed to: (1) purchase property needed to accomplish grant goals, (2) obtain community support and accomplish a planned marketplace expansion, or (3) create business opportunities and employment opportunities for low-income individuals as planned in the approved grant. We found that ACF did not effectively manage the grant, monitor grantee actions, and provide adequate oversight. The grantee's problems were clearly indicated in information we found in ACF headquarters files and should have been detected and caused ACF to devote increased oversight and technical assistance to the project early in the grant period.

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