Archive for December, 2009
New Recovery Act Guidance Addresses Data Quality, Nonreporters, and Jobs
Well, as most of the nation’s capital braced last week for a weekend blizzard, the Office of Management and Budget was busy releasing new guidance on the Recovery Act reporting requirements.
The memo released late Friday afternoon targets three areas: steps that federal awarding agencies must take to ensure the quality of data being reported by Recovery Act recipients; how federal agencies are to deal with recipients who have not reported or who have persistent reporting problems; and how recipients are to calculate and report the number of jobs created or saved with Recovery Act dollars.
For example, federal agencies are now required to provide recipients with a specific list of data about their awards, such as award type, amount, award number, CFDA number, federal agency number, and TAS (Treasury Account Symbol) code. OMB also offers guidance on how agencies are to assess late and non-reporters, and how to submit that list, which will be published on Recovery.gov.
The interesting aspect of the guidance for recipients is that OMB has offered detailed, step-by-step instructions and examples for calculating jobs. Further, recipients are no longer required to report cumulative jobs data, but rather simply job information for the reporting period.
You can view the new memo here.
Grants Management Reform Bill On The Move
Yesterday the House passed its version of a bill to reauthorize the Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act, pushing OMB even more to create a one-stop web portal that would consolidate all grant application and management functions and standardize the process governmentwide.
The House version of S. 303 is similar to the Senate bill passed in March 2009. Both direct OMB to beef up Grants.gov so that it serves not only as a central location for grant applications, but also for grants management. The legislation continues the push for standardized reporting forms, and requires OMB to provide Congress with a list of those federal agencies that do not use the standard forms and the central management portal.
The House bill also would require the development of a single data standard for private sector entities to use to submit information to federal agencies, including grant applications and reports.
Because the Senate bill does not contain this language – and because of other differences – members of the House and Senate must now meet in conference to work out a comprise bill before the legislation can be sent to the White House.
We’ll keep you informed about this measure as it moves through Congress. Also, this and other grants-related developments will be covered in Management Concepts’ upcoming Federal Grants Update course. The annual course is offered around the country each spring and summer. Watch our website for details in the coming months.
States, Locals Invited To Comment on What Works
On a new website, Partner4Solutions, the federal government is asking state and local governments for ideas on reducing improper federal payments.
The website and request for input are part of the Obama administration’s efforts to reduce the estimated $98 billion in improper payments made in fiscal 2009.
“We know that states and local governments are already addressing these issues head-on and have identified many innovative approaches. We see this as an opportunity to better understand some of the on-the-ground best practices. Please join us as a partner by contributing your ideas and suggestions,” the website says.
You can submit suggestions and learn more about the effort to reduce improper payments here.
OMB Again Tells Agencies to Focus on Recovery Act Reporting
Once again, the Office of Management and Budget is directing federal awarding agencies to step up their efforts to ensure recipients meet their reporting responsibilities under the Recovery Act. And for those recipients who don’t comply, federal agencies will be taking action.
In a new memo, OMB Director Peter Orzag says that while a large number of recipients did report on Recovery Act projects in the first reporting period, a significant number failed to do so. He reminded federal agencies that failure to report constitutes noncompliance with grant award terms and conditions, and may have serious consequences.
To address the issue, federal agencies must take further steps to ensure Recovery Act recipients understand their reporting responsibilities as well as the consequences of noncompliance. Agencies must not only identify each recipient that has not submitted timely reports, but must also contact these organizations, assess the severity of the noncompliance and determine what corrective actions are to be taken – up to and including termination of funding.
To read the OMB memo, click here.
Agencies May Still Have To Pay ACORN
Just a quick follow-up to the ACORN posting from last week.
The Justice Department in a new memo said the recent law that prohibits funding for the controversial nonprofit does not prevent federal agencies – specifically HUD – from honoring existing contractual obligations with ACORN.
The fiscal 2010 Continuing Appropriations Resolution states, “None of the funds made available by this joint resolution or any prior act may be provided to [ACORN], or any of its affiliates, subsidiaries or allied organizations.”
Justice said the language used by Congress is unclear and can be read several ways. The memo says lawmakers did not use correct appropriations terminology, instead relying on the word “provide” which has no specified meaning in federal appropriations law.
For those of you interested in this and related topics, Management Concepts offers a a one-day course, Appropriations Law for Federal Grants.