Exclusive: Bush White House Pushed Grant for Former Staffer

Furthermore, Cummins' said in the application that she planned to have one of her senior employees oversee Victory Outreach's use of the federal funds, even though that employee, Kelly Cowles, had mismanaged funds according to Ohio state investigators.

The proposal said that Cowles was qualified because as president of her own consulting company she had designed and implemented "a two-year statewide $22 million" faith-based initiative for the Ohio Governor's Office.

Ohio's governor terminated that contract for mismanagement in March 2007.

An investigation by the Ohio Inspector General in September 2007 questioned more than $125,000 in payments to Cowles' firm, concluding that "there was no documentation of what work was performed, services provided, or actual days worked." Cowles' company filed for bankruptcy protection in June of that year. Cowles declined to comment to ABC News for this story.

Flores awarded the $1.2 million OJJDP grant around that same time despite the findings of the Ohio State Inspector General and the objections of career Justice Department grant reviewers.

The reviewers concluded that Cummins' proposal was poorly crafted and labeled it as "not recommended" for funding. They questioned whether the Victory Outreach had either "the capacity" or "sufficient knowledge" to "undertake a project of this magnitude," according to a DOJ memo.

In the end, Victory Outreach rejected the grant because the group did not believe it was qualified to carry it out.

"Our board decided it was way too big a grant to handle," said Pastor Tony Garcia, Vice President of Special Services for Victory Outreach.

Garcia said that Victory Outreach became involved with Urban Strategies after other faith-based and evangelical organizations said that the consulting firm had been successful in obtaining federal grants that they would not otherwise have won. "They were highly effective in their work for other ministries," he said.

The Victory Outreach grant is one of several awarded by Flores that have come under scrutiny.