United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2002-02-13 monographic deposited born digital 10 p. GA 1.13:GAO-02-276R https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-276R P0b002ee18038eaf1 f:d02276r DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-276R machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-276R GAO-02-276R Drug trafficking Drugs Controlled substances Arrests Internal controls Data collection Data integrity Federal/state relations State/local relations Budgeting Correspondence A02751

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) has 21 domestic divisional offices and 57 foreign offices. Recently, DEA's Caribbean Division was alleged to have taken credit for arrests not connected to drug violations or in which it played no role to gain more resources. To claim credit for drug-related arrests, DEA agents must have direct involvement in domestic arrests and provide "substantial assistance" to host-country law enforcement officials in foreign arrests. DEA's Agents Manual defines substantial assistance as active participation or furnishing of information or funds that lead to an arrest. Agents are required to complete a "Personal History Report" on each person arrested and to complete a "Report of Investigation" on the investigative activities leading to the arrest. The Personal History Report is used by DEA to track the number of arrests. DEA officials told GAO that arrest data do not serve as a basis for requesting additional resources in the budget development process. DEA's internal control procedures and inspection programs include: (1) DEA headquarters Office of Inspections' on-site inspections performed about every two years for its domestic offices and about every three years for its foreign offices, and (2) DEA's divisional offices' annual self-inspections. To ensure the validity of its arrest data, in August 2001, the then acting administrator changed DEA's inspection programs--from a review of a random sample of arrests to a comprehensive review of all arrests. GAO's reviews of DEA inspection reports indicated that significant over-reporting of arrests may have been a one-time occurrence. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-276R/html/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-276R.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-276R/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-276R.pdf GAO-02-276R https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GAO-02-276R Correspondence GAO-02-276R; The Drug Enforcement Administration's Reporting of Arrests; Drug trafficking Drugs Controlled substances Arrests Internal controls Data collection Data integrity Federal/state relations State/local relations Budgeting Title 22 Section 2291 22 U.S.C. 2291