OVW's grant-closeout backlog was audited in 2018. It only grew.
Summary
The Office on Violence Against Women's STOP and Sexual Assault Services Program grants distribute over $200 million a year to state agencies fighting violence against women. A June 2026 Justice Department inspector general audit found $22,068,208 of that funding sitting undisbursed in expired, unclosed grant accounts, plus $1,159,509 in unallowable excess drawdowns by state agencies. This is not a new problem: a March 2018 inspector general audit found $14,578,864 stuck in 338 unclosed OVW grants, and OVW reported it had fixed the underlying process. By September 2025, OVW's unclosed-grant balance across its full portfolio had grown to more than $66 million across 771 grants -- more than the Department's two other primary granting agencies combined. The 2026 audit's own verdict: closeout problems are 'more, not less, prevalent almost a decade later,' and OVW's 2018 corrective actions 'were not a lasting solution.'
$22 million in accounts that should already be closed
STOP (Services, Training, Officers, and Prosecutors) and the Sexual Assault Services Program (SASP) together distribute over $200 million a year⧉ to state administering agencies in 56 states, territories, and the District of Columbia, which in turn subaward the money to organizations serving crime victims. Federal regulation gives grantees 120 days after a grant ends to finish closeout paperwork and gives up to a year to complete the process. Reviewing STOP and SASP grants that had already been expired for at least a year, found 164 STOP grants with $19,447,553 still undisbursed and 59 SASP grants with $2,620,655 more -- $22,068,208 combined -- plus $1,159,509 in excess drawdowns split between the two programs.
View data as table
| STOP undisbursed balances | 19,447,553 | 164 expired grants |
|---|---|---|
| SASP undisbursed balances | 2,620,655 | 59 expired grants |
| STOP excess drawdowns | 1,093,201 | |
| SASP excess drawdowns | 66,308 |
What OVW fixed before the report even shipped
moved on the findings during the audit itself. By the time issued its final report, had remedied $15,223,420 of the $22,068,208 in undisbursed balances, leaving $6,844,788 outstanding, and had remedied $533,786 of the $1,159,509 in excess drawdowns, leaving $625,723 still questioned. 's three recommendations ask to put the remaining undisbursed balances to better use, recover the remaining excess drawdowns, and build a sustainable plan for staying compliant with federal closeout requirements going forward. concurred with all three.
View data as table
| Undisbursed balances remedied | 15,223,420 |
|---|---|
| Undisbursed balances remaining | 6,844,788 |
| Excess drawdowns remedied | 533,786 |
| Excess drawdowns remaining | 625,723 |
The same audit, eight years apart
This is where the report becomes a record of recurrence rather than a one-time finding. In March 2018, 's inspector general audited grant closeout across , the Office of Justice Programs, and the COPS Office, and found specifically carrying $14,578,864 in remaining balances across 338 awards expired more than 180 days. responded by updating its policies and de-obligating unused funds, and the inspector general credited the fix. The 2026 audit found the opposite trajectory⧉: 's own agency-wide reporting shows 771 grants expired but not closed as of September 30, 2025, carrying more than $66 million in undisbursed balances -- far more than OJP's 88 expired grants ($7.4 million) or the COPS Office's 322 ($4 million) in the same period. The report states its own conclusion plainly: closeout issues are 'more, not less, prevalent almost a decade later,' and 's 'previous corrective actions were not a lasting solution.'
View data as table
| OVW, Sept. 2016 (338 grants) | 14,578,864 | |
|---|---|---|
| OVW, Sept. 2025 (771 grants) | 66,000,000 | OIG states 'exceeding $66 million' |
| OJP, Sept. 2025 (88 grants) | 7,400,000 | |
| COPS Office, Sept. 2025 (322 grants) | 4,000,000 |
Why the backlog keeps growing
Both audits point to the same underlying constraint: not enough people doing the closeout work. In 2018, officials told investigators their award caseloads ran 70 to 90 grants per Program Specialist against a portfolio itself considered appropriate at 45, attributing it to chronic staffing shortages. In 2026, found more than 80 percent of expired STOP and SASP grants were stuck pending financial review, 'likely due in part' to having only 2 of its 13 Grants Financial Management Division staff assigned to closeout work at all.
The takeaway
- The dollar figures moved in the wrong direction. 's own unclosed-grant balance grew from $14.6 million across 338 awards in 2016 to more than $66 million across 771 awards in 2025 -- roughly 4.5 times larger, at minimum, on the inspector general's own numbers.
- A fix that was credited once didn't hold. updated its policies and de-obligated funds after the 2018 audit, and the inspector general said so at the time. The 2026 audit's own conclusion is that those corrective actions 'were not a lasting solution.'
- The constraint named in both audits is staffing, not policy. In 2018 it was Program Specialists carrying double their appropriate caseload; in 2026 it's 2 of 13 financial-management staff assigned to closeout work -- different years, the same bottleneck.
Figures are from Audit Report 26-061 (June 2026) and Audit Report 18-18 (March 2018), both read directly; the 2016 figure was independently verified from the 2018 report's own Table 3, not taken solely from the 2026 report's summary of it. made no recommendations on STOP/SASP funding utilization broadly, noting that over 95 percent of program funding is ultimately used and that the roughly $91 million reported unspent from FY2019-2023 awards (about 3-6 percent annually) is a separate matter from the expired-grant closeout findings above.
Sources(2) ▾
- U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, Audit of the Department of Justice Grant Award Closeout Process (Audit Report 18-18) (2018-03-01) — the Office on Violence Against Women's () 2016 closeout backlog -- 338 expired-but-unclosed awards totaling $14,578,864 in remaining balances -- independently verified from the original 2018 audit's own Table 3, not just the 2026 report's summary of it oversight.gov · original document
- U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, Audit of the Utilization of the Office on Violence Against Women's STOP (Services, Training, Officers, and Prosecutors) Violence Against Women and Sexual Assault Services Formula Grant Programs (Audit Report 26-061) (2026-06-04) — the $22,068,208 in undisbursed STOP/SASP funds and $1,159,509 in excess drawdowns (Table 1), 's remediation progress, the agency-wide comparison to OJP and COPS Office (771 expired grants, $66M+ undisbursed), the report's own citation of the 2018 audit and its 'more, not less, prevalent almost a decade later' conclusion, staffing detail, and the three recommendations oig.justice.gov · original document
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Federal grants are supposed to close within a year of ending: recipients reconcile spending, the government recovers what wasn't used, and the money is freed for new awards. In June 2026, 's inspector general found $22,068,208 sitting in expired, unclosed grant accounts for two of the Office on Violence Against Women's core formula grant programs, plus another $1,159,509 in payments state agencies drew down in excess of what they'd actually spent. The same office had been audited for the same failure before. In March 2018, the inspector general found $14,578,864 stuck in 338 unclosed grants; said it had fixed the process. By September 2025, 's unclosed-grant balance across its entire portfolio had grown past $66 million.