Grants Blog

Posts Tagged ‘reporting’

Recipients of Recovery Act funds that have not filed the required reports detailing their use of funds and their programs’ progress may soon find themselves facing severe consequences – including the loss of funds, suspension and debarment, and even punitive actions.

In a new memo, President Obama directs federal agencies to “further intensify their efforts” to improve reporting compliance and to report the identities of noncompliant entities.

While the vast majority of recipients filed reports, the White House estimates that prime recipients failed to file more than 1,000 required reports covering an array of Recovery Act programs.

The president called on OMB to review the current guidance regarding reporting compliance and to issue even more guidance, if necessary.

Now is your last chance (probably) to comment on the proposed governmentwide standard Tangible Personal Property Report Form (SF-428).

Yesterday (March 25), the General Services Administration issued a Federal Registernotice inviting comments on the form and announcing that it is sending it for final information collection review before making the form available for governmentwide use. This form is a result of the government’s ongoing streamlining effort which includes issuing standard grants management reporting forms for all agencies to use.

GSA originally published the form in 2008, and received a handful of comments on it. In response, the agency made a few small changes – it clarified the instructions and numbered the attachments.

Comments are due April 26.

To view the announcement, 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.

The National Science Foundation – on behalf of the Grants Policy Committee and the Research Business Models Subcommittee – is accepting final comments on the new governmentwide Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR) format, while at the same time putting the format out for use by federal agencies.

In a Federal Register announcement, NSF said agencies may now use the new standard format, which is designed to help streamline the reporting process for grantees as well as allow federal awarding agencies to more easily analyze, compare, and compile research program information.

NSF says it expects this to be the last opportunity for public input before the reporting format is finalized. Comments may be submitted until February 12 via email to Suzanne Plimpton, splimpton@nsf.gov.

You can access the FR notice inviting comments here.

Our annual Federal Grants Update seminar will have additional information about this new report, as well as other developments in grants management. Dates and locations of the one-day seminar will be announced soon. Watch this blog or visit our website www.managementconcepts.com/grants for future information.

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.