Grants Blog

Posts Tagged ‘Recovery Act’

Wow, it’s been a busy week in the area of grants management…

On March 25, OMB amended 2 CFR Part 176 – the award term for the Recovery Act – to reflect changes in U.S. policy regarding Buy America requirements as they relate to international agreements with certain countries. Specifically, OMB has amended the threshold that applies to international Buy America agreements, added an international agreement to the Buy America policy, and added a country to an existing agreement.

If you’re interested, you can view the Federal Register announcement here.

And remember, all of these changes I’ve discussed in my recent blogs are covered in our Federal Grants Update course. To view dates and locations, click here.

Just days before the next Recovery Act reporting cycle begins, OMB has issued further reporting guidance for federal agency personnel and recipients. In the March 22 memo, OMB addresses data quality, technical issues, and the importance of single audits, among other topics.

Some of the specific items covered in the memo include the actions federal agencies must take during the new “continuous corrections” phase of the reporting cycle, a new category of data quality that federal officials must now review, immediate actions that should be taken to review and act on single audit findings, and for recipients, technical issues such as when a report is considered to be the “final” report.

And in the area of single audits, there is an interesting note. Because of the need to quickly review and act on audits, OMB has told federal agencies not to grant any requests for A-133 filing extensions.

OMB says it realizes the April reporting period is fast approaching and that it will respond to questions and concerns in a timely manner.

You can download the new guidance here.

A new report confirms what most of you in grants management probably already knew: implementation and administration of Recovery Act programs has put a strain on the federal grants workforce.

The Recovery and Accountability Transparency Board surveyed the 29 agencies charged with handing out Recovery Act funds. Review of Contracts and Grants Workforce Staffing and Qualifications in Agencies Overseeing Recovery Act Funds showed that most agencies felt staffing was inadequate to operate Recovery Act programs, or that if the staffing level was adequate, administration of Recovery Act programs adversely impacted the administration of non-Recovery Act programs. The impact on both Recovery and non-Recovery Act programs included award delays, decreased postaward monitoring, increased staff hours, and use of supplemental staff.

The board also looked at the training and qualifications of grants staff, and noted that there is no governmentwide qualification or training requirements for the grants workforce. Only about 8 percent of the grants officers, 50 percent of grants program managers, and 29 percent of grants specialists work in agencies that will have implemented agency-specific training and continuous learning requirements by June 2010. Without a common certification and continuous learning program, the report said it is difficult to determine whether the qualification requirements and training of the grants workforce are adequate.

You can view the full report here.

Now that the Recovery Act is one year old, the Government Accountability Office is taking a look back — and a look forward — at how state and local agencies have used the money they received, and the efforts being made to improve accountability for those awards.

Most of the nearly 200-page report deals with specific programs and agencies, including Medicaid, Transportation, and Education, but GAO also addresses issues relating to recipient reporting, and a significant amount of attention to the OMB A-133 single audit process.

GAO seems generally pleased with OMB’s efforts to use single audits, although the office continues to urge OMB — and Congress — to amend the single audit process so that it can be more efficient and timely. And GAO has several agency-specific recommendations, such as encouraging the Education Department to work with OMB on a formula for determining FTE jobs during the summer months.

One new recommendation that should be of interest to most recipients is that OMB develop a “formal and feasible” framework for review of recipient reporting changes during the continual update period and consider providing more time for agencies to review and provide feedback to recipients before posting updated reports on Recovery.gov.

You can read the full GAO report here.

Information about Management Concepts’ annual Federal Grants Update seminar is now available.

This year we’ll be discussing transparency and accountability, audits, standard forms, and more.

These one-day classes start the first week in April and run throughout the summer in cities around the country. Click here to see dates, locations, topics, and registration options.

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.

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.

Registration on the new FederalReporting.gov website – where grantees must post information about their work under the Recovery Act – is lagging and OMB wants federal agencies to help.

In a just-released memo to federal agencies, OMB outlined three steps that federal agencies must “take immediately” to help recipients and subrecipients register with and submit information to FederalReporting.gov.

First, agencies are to begin targeted outreach to remind recipients of their reporting and registration obligations. OMB noted in the memo that current registration numbers on FederalReporting.gov are below expectations and that this could lead to underreporting as the October 10 reporting deadline approaches.

Second, OMB has told agencies to provide in-kind resources for a new government-to-government initiative set up by OMB and the Recovery Act Accountaiblity Board. This effort will  supplement existing technical assistance resources to specifically help state and local governments meet their reporting responsibilities.

Finally, agencies must label recipient registration and reporting delays as a potential agency risk and idenitify steps to mitigate that risk.

To read the full OMB memo to federal agencies, click here.

That the new website FederalReporting.gov is now live and both federal agencies and recipients of Recovery Act funds are being encouraged to complete the one-time registration.

Although reporting will not begin until October, agencies are encouraged to register now, well in advance of the October date.

The new site is where recipients will submit the required Recovery Act funding and project reports and where federal agencies will review and comment on the information before it is posted to the public Recovery.gov website.

FederalReporting.gov has an FAQ section, a page where you can download reporting templates, general information about the site and about the Recovery Act, and  a live chat feature for those who need assistance registering.

The online newsletter Government Executive has posted a checklist that may be useful for those responsible for monitoring or administering Recovery Act grants.

The list summarizes the major reporting requirements for the next three months, organized by deadline date.

You can view the checklist here.