DOJ Says $12,600 Is Owed; the Charity's Own Math Says $3,948
Summary
A Justice Department inspector general audit of a Delaware domestic-violence and sexual-assault nonprofit's $886,000 in federal victim-services grants questioned $12,600 in unallocated office costs at one of its crisis centers. Twelve days before the Office of Justice Programs agreed in writing to remedy that full $12,600, the nonprofit and the state agency that oversees it had already told the inspector general the real number was $3,947.76 -- using a cost-allocation method the state itself had approved. The inspector general closed the finding as "resolved" anyway, on a promise to recover a figure two of the report's three respondents say is wrong by $8,652 -- about 1.5 cents of every dollar the nonprofit had been paid under the grants so far.
A subaward chain built to reach crime victims
VOCA's Crime Victims Fund, built from federal criminal fines, penalties, and forfeitures rather than taxes, flows from OJP's Office for Victims of Crime through state administering agencies -- Delaware CJC, in this case -- to direct service providers. YWCA Delaware, part of a national YWCA network dating to 1895, received four such subawards from Delaware CJC between April 2024 and April 2025, totaling $886,000, to fund a portion of its SARC program: a 24/7 crisis helpline, hospital and police accompaniment, counseling, and referrals for victims of sexual and domestic violence across the state. As of October 2025, Delaware CJC had reimbursed YWCA Delaware $577,704 of that total.
View data as table
| 2023-VF-P/T-3296 | $175,000 |
|---|---|
| 2023-VF-P/T-3297 | $275,000 |
| 2024-VF-P/T-3524 | $175,000 |
| 2023/2024-VF-P/T-3525 | $261,000 |
| TOTAL | $886,000 |
What the audit found
tested a judgmental sample of $133,483 -- $100,920 in subaward costs plus $32,563 in matching costs -- against the $577,704 already reimbursed. It found YWCA Delaware's fiscal policies hadn't been updated since 2020 and didn't require staff to track each award's funds separately; one subaward, which combined two separate federal OJP grants, was accordingly commingled into a single ledger account instead of two. also caught YWCA Delaware overstating a sampled performance metric it reported to Delaware CJC and OJP's Office for Victims of Crime -- it prorated specific services like counseling sessions across funding sources correctly, but not its overall count of victims served. The one figure that made it into the audit's Schedule of Dollar-Related Findings was $12,600 in occupancy costs at a SARC office: costs confirmed were legitimately tied to the grant, but which YWCA Delaware had charged to whichever funding source happened to be available that year rather than by any documented allocation method.
The number nobody agreed on
YWCA Delaware's June 5, 2026 response to the draft audit didn't dispute that its allocation practice had been undocumented -- it disputed the amount. Applying a square-footage-based occupancy methodology Delaware CJC had approved in April 2025, the nonprofit recalculated that only $3,947.76 of the $12,600 was actually allocable to the audited subaward, and asked to weigh that analysis before settling the questioned amount. Delaware CJC's own response, filed the same day, went further: it reviewed YWCA Delaware's methodology and stated it "confirms the YWCA assessment that $3,947.76 was allocable to the project," while saying it would work with and OJP to reconcile the finding. Twelve days later, OJP's response to 's draft report skipped past that reconciliation. It agreed with all four recommendations and told it would "coordinate with Delaware CJC to remedy the $12,600 in unallowable occupancy costs" -- the original, higher figure, with no reference to the recount the audit's own appendices show the state agency had already accepted.
View data as table
| OIG's audit finding | $12,600 |
|---|---|
| YWCA Delaware / Delaware CJC recount | $3,948 ($3,947.76) |
| Unreconciled gap | $8,652 |
What "resolved" means here
's closing appendix marked all four recommendations "Resolved" based on OJP's written agreement to act. But for the cost-recovery recommendation specifically, 's own language is narrower: the recommendation "can be closed when we receive evidence that OJP has remedied the $12,600 in unallowable other costs" -- meaning the audit, as published, records a procedural agreement rather than a settled amount or recovered dollar. Three respondents signed off on the same report; two of them had already put a different number on the record. Nothing in the report explains why OJP's letter didn't address the recount, and 's audit approach doesn't call for it to referee a dispute between a subrecipient and its state administering agency once the state has concurred with the recommendation in principle.
- $12,600 is 's sole dollar-related finding in Audit Report 26-070: unallocated occupancy costs at one YWCA Delaware SARC office, charged against a $175,000 VOCA subaward.
- $3,947.76 (about $3,948) is what YWCA Delaware and Delaware CJC's own retrospective analysis -- using a Delaware CJC-approved allocation method -- says was actually allocable, filed in writing before OJP's response.
- OJP agreed to remedy the full $12,600 anyway, 12 days after Delaware CJC had confirmed the lower figure, with no explanation in the record of the discrepancy.
- The recommendation is marked "Resolved" but not closed -- 's own report says closing requires evidence the $12,600 was remedied, a figure two of the three responding parties don't agree the money actually totals.
The $8,652 gap, its 68.7% share of 's original questioned-cost figure, its 1.5% share of the $577,704 already reimbursed, and the sample-size comparisons are this outlet's own arithmetic on the audit report's stated figures (method in this piece's underlying data); the report itself never states these comparisons or reconciles the two dollar figures. 's test sample was a non-statistical, judgmental sample, so its findings cannot be projected to the full $886,000 in subawards. Nothing in the report alleges fraud; 's findings describe undocumented cost-allocation practices and overstated performance reporting, not misuse of funds for unauthorized purposes.
Sources(2) ▾
- U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Audit Division, Audit of the Office of Justice Programs Victim Assistance Funds Subawarded by the Delaware Criminal Justice Council to the YWCA Delaware, Inc., Wilmington, Delaware (Audit Report 26-070) (2026-07-08) — The full 23-page audit report -- executive summary, audit results (program performance and financial management), conclusion and four recommendations, the Schedule of Dollar-Related Findings, and all three agency response letters (YWCA Delaware, Delaware CJC, and OJP) plus 's own closing analysis in Appendix 6. Every dollar figure and the full text of the three-way dispute over the questioned-cost amount comes from this document. oig.justice.gov · original document
- U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the Inspector General, Report summary page for Audit Report 26-070 (YWCA Delaware, Inc.) (2026-07-08) — 's own reports-index summary page for Report 26-070: confirms the report number, the July 8, 2026 posting date, the $12,600 questioned-costs figure, and the count of four recommendations -- independent, differently-hosted corroboration of the PDF's headline figures. oig.justice.gov · original document
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The Justice Department's Office of the Inspector General⧉ audited $886,000 in federal Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) subawards that the Delaware Criminal Justice Council passed through to YWCA Delaware, Inc. for its Sexual Assault Response Center (SARC) program. The audit's entire dollar-related finding was $12,600 in occupancy costs deemed unallocated at one SARC office. But before the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) ever agreed to remedy that figure, both YWCA Delaware and the Delaware Criminal Justice Council (Delaware CJC) had already told , in writing, that the real number -- using an allocation method the state itself had approved -- was $3,947.76. closed the finding as "resolved" on OJP's promise to recover the original $12,600 anyway, leaving an $8,652 gap between what the audit says is owed and what the two parties actually accounting for the money say it is.