[...]... xxii AUDIT OF DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE CONFERENCE PLANNING AND FOOD AND BEVERAGE COSTS TABLE OF CONTENTS Page INTRODUCTION 1 Prior OIG Audit 3 OIG Audit Approach and Objective 4 FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .7 I EXTERNAL EVENT PLANNING 7 Use of External Event Planners 8 Accounting for External Event Planning Costs 9 Assessment of External Event Planning Costs. .. that oversee conference expenditures and ensure that conference planners justify significant food and beverage costs 20 U.S Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General, Department of Justice Conference Expenditures, Audit Report 07-42 (September 2007) 3 In response to the recommendations included in the September 2007 audit, JMD updated its guidelines on conference planning and expenditure... II FOOD AND BEVERAGES 23 DOJ Conference Food and Beverage Guidelines 23 Itemized Conference Food and Beverage Costs 25 Analysis of Itemized Food and Beverage Costs 50 Recommendations 54 STATEMENT ON INTERNAL CONTROLS 55 STATEMENT ON COMPLIANCE WITH LAWS AND REGULATIONS .56 SCHEDULE OF DOLLAR-RELATED FINDINGS 57 ACRONYMS 58 APPENDIX I: OBJECTIVE, SCOPE, AND. .. minimize conference planning costs and (2) ensure the food and beverages provided are incidental, reasonable, and only provided at workrelated events Our audit determined that DOJ components that sponsored conferences did not track and report external event planning costs as required, and that these costs, especially indirect costs, varied widely In addition, individual conferences featured full meals, beverages,... Task Force (OCDETF) planned their conferences internally and therefore did not procure external (non-DOJ) event planning costs viii EXTERNAL EVENT PLANNING COSTS Conference Award Number Award Amount ($) Award Funds Used on Conference Event Planning ($) Total Conference Cost ($) Event Planning Portion of Total Conference Costs (%) BJA and SMART Office Indian Country Pre -Conference 2008-DD-BX-K002 600,000... over $600,000 in planning costs, while another major conference in August 2006 planned via a contract with a professional event planner incurred about $145,000 in planning costs The audit also concluded that while using appropriated funds to pay for food and beverages at DOJ conferences might be allowable, some of the food and beverage costs – particularly those associated with meals and receptions –... exhibit below details the food and beverage costs incurred for each conference xv DOJ CONFERENCE FOOD AND BEVERAGES Conference Title Location (City, State or Country) Length of Conference (Days) Number of Participants or Attendees* EOUSA National Conference Washington, D.C 4 166 EOIR Legal Conference Washington, D.C 5 534 OCDETF Conference Washington, D.C 4 1,348 OJJDP AMBER Alert Conference Denver, CO... Indian Country Pre -Conference) OJP, Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) 11th National Indian Nations Conference (OVC Indian Nations Conference) OJP, BJA BJA Walking on Common Ground II Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) Total Cost ($)* OCDETF National Leadership Conference (OCDETF National Conference) Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and Office of Sex Offender Sentencing,... and their conference planners should implement policies that:  Minimize all conference costs, including administrative costs, conference costs, attendee travel costs, and conference attendee time costs;  Maximize the use of government-owned or government-provided conference facilities as much as possible; and  Identify opportunities to reduce costs in selecting a particular conference location and. .. number of conferences and (2) events with high reported costs in particular conference cost categories, such as food and beverages Because both federal and DOJ guidelines require that sponsoring components minimize the cost of their conferences, we assessed 2 types of costs for these 10 events that we believe constitute the most significant drivers of conference expenditures: outside event planning