ROANOKE, Va. – An internal audit found spending, oversight and procurement problems tied to a gun violence intervention grant administered through the Roanoke Police Department’s RESET program.
A municipal audit released in February found spending tied to a $300,000 grant used for violence-prevention programs in Roanoke exceeded its authorized amount by nearly $100,000.
The audit reviewed the city’s Group Violence Intervention grant, funded through the Virginia Office of the Attorney General using federal pandemic relief money from the American Rescue Plan Act. The funds supported the city’s Rapid Engagement of Support in the Event of Trauma, or RESET, initiative, which works with community partners to help prevent gun violence and support at-risk youth.
According to the report, the grant totaled $300,000, but total spending reached $394,371, creating an overage of $94,371. Auditors concluded that spending “was not effectively controlled at the budget level,” and expenses continued to be charged to the grant months after it had already been fully spent.
The audit found that a software conversion to the city’s new Oracle Fusion financial system in July 2024 contributed to the issue. The grant was not initially included in the system migration, causing inaccurate financial information and weakening budget oversight.
Auditors also found problems with how some services were procured.
Two vendors were paid $23,987 and $17,125 through purchasing cards, even though they “should have been subject to a competitive procurement process because they provided on-going services that exceeded $10,000.”
The city also paid a vendor $62,638 for mentoring services without a contract in place, using dozens of decentralized purchase orders instead of a formal procurement process. Later, the same vendor was awarded a sole-source contract, but auditors said the justification documentation did not meet requirements under Virginia law or city purchasing policy.
The audit reviewed invoices tied to mentoring services and found some documentation gaps. While case notes generally supported youth mentorship activities such as tutoring, job-search help and life-skills discussions, auditors identified instances of double-billing and missing approval signatures on some payments.
In addition, the report raised concerns about safety compliance in the vendor-based mentoring program. Auditors said they could not verify whether background checks or driver eligibility screenings were completed for mentors because the vendor did not document those steps.
The audit states, “The background information provided was insufficient but was enough to confirm that eight (8) of nine (9) mentors were not on the sex offender registry.”
The audit found six instances of child labor law violations, writing, “The mentor program did not ensure the safety of mentees nor were all activities conducted in compliance with the Code of Virginia.”
10 News reached out to the Roanoke Police Department who issued the following statement which reads in part:
The Roanoke Police Department’s Community Response Bureau and the RESET team continue to provide mentoring services through the program’s outreach workers, who are City of Roanoke employees. Previously, mentoring services were provided through a contracted private vendor, but that arrangement ended in fall 2025. Since then, the mentoring program has transitioned to an in-house model using city staff.
Roanoke Police Department
The audit includes several action plans aimed at improving financial oversight, procurement practices, documentation and youth safety:
- All vendor-based mentoring services have been eliminated.
- All work-program activities involving minors under the age of 18 that were previously conducted through vendors have been discontinued.
- Any future youth participation will occur exclusively through the City’s Teen Apprenticeship Program administered by the Human Resources Department and will exclude potentially hazardous activities.
- No youth under the age of 14 will be engaged in any work activities.
You can read the full audit here.