The Government Accountability Office has said improvements in monitoring grantees and measuring performance could improve the accountability for grants to faith based and community organizations.
The administration’s Faith-Based and Community Initiative established centers in five federal agencies since 2001 and since fiscal 2002 they have spent $24 million on administrative activities, and they have received $500 million through new grant programs for training and technical assistance, according to GAO-06-616.
However, while FBO’s are prohibited from using federal funds for religious activities, or for social programs that take place at the same time and place as religious activities, some of the 26 FBOs GAO interviewed described using federal funds on activities that appeared to be inherently religious in nature, GAO said.
It said four of the 13 FBOs that provided voluntary religious activities did not separate in time or location some religious activities from federally funded program services in violation of the initiative’s safeguards.
Agencies are not required to monitor FBO grantees differently than secular organizations, and few of the federal and state agencies administering them included references in their monitoring guidelines on grantee compliance with the safeguards, according to the report.
It also said little information is available to determine whether the programs are achieving their long-term goals.
