| 1. | How will you ensure that the GPC's goals and Strategic Plan are implemented now that
P.L. 106-107 has sun set? |
| | The GPC remains committed to serving the best interests of the grants community by continually identifying opportunities to improve Federal financial assistance. The GPC's improvement efforts gained significant momentum when the committee assumed responsibility for implementing P.L. 106-107, the Federal Financial Management Assistance Act of 1999. While P.L. 106-107 expired in November 2007, the GPC continues to build on this momentum, advancing existing efforts and leveraging new opportunities to enhance Federal financial assistance. View the draft Implementation Plan. |
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| 2. | Why is it taking so long to streamline policy around grants and cooperative agreements? |
| | It takes time to ensure that all agencies are able to contribute comments to the process and address each issue. This process requires the GPC to revisit issues frequently. For example, if an agency is not involved in initial discussions of a report format and then comes to the table later in the process, the GPC takes time to hear and consider their suggestions, which consequently improves the policy.
There are also Office of Management and Budget (OMB) legal requirements that must be taken into consideration. Statutes must be met or altered, which involves working with Congressional stakeholders. Once agency policy is determined internally, each agency has to work with its stakeholders in Congress to update legislation with the new change to their mission. |
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| 3. | Why does it seem like so many agencies are working on the same thing within the grants streamlining process? |
| | There are many areas within grants and grants management implementation in which representation and input from each grant-making agency is vital. |
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| 4. | I am somewhat concerned that the streamlining requirements have not adequately flowed down to the state and recipient level. When would this take place within your Strategic Plan, as the success or failure of the process will largely depend on these same requirements flowing down from the Federal Government? |
| | One of the reasons for the length of time involved has been the GPC's goal to include Federal grant programs in all aspects of this process. The process itself has involved everything from announcements via Grants.gov through close-outs and audits. When completed, the goal is to streamline and standardize virtually all aspects of grants administration so that applicants have equal opportunities. If successful, a recipient would be able to expend most grant related resources to address the funded service, research, assistance, etc., because the administrative and reporting aspects are simplified and standardized. Including stakeholder input in this process has taken time.
Second, as the GPC moves into the latter stages of the process, it is trying to include states, universities, and non-profits to a larger extent, so the outcomes will be reflective of their concerns. The GPC expects a more robust dialogue among federal and non-federal partners as it continues with the streamlining effort. |
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| Standard Forms and Reports |
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| 5. | Where can one find information (regulations, reporting periods, user instructions etc.) for the standard forms and reports the GPC has developed? |
| | Information on the standard forms and reports, including the Federal Financial Report (FFR), and the Performance Progress Report (PPR), can be found on the OMB forms site here. By clicking on each form and its instructions, users can learn about the regulations, the reporting period, and the user instructions pertaining to each form. Additionally, you may visit here to find information on GPC forms still in development, such as the Tangible Personal Property Report (TPPR), the Real Property Status Report (RPSR). |
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| 6. | Will the reporting forms the GPC is creating gradually replace program-specific reports currently required by agencies for real property, personal property, etc.? |
| | Yes, the GPC is currently developing standard forms to capture essential information. Ideally, upon their completion, each agency will adopt and begin to use these standard forms. |
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| 7. | The proposed TPPR form will collect information on tangible personal property, what is tangible personal property? |
| | Tangible personal property refers to items such as equipment and supplies. It includes federally owned items provided by the awarding agency for use on the grant and items acquired with grant funds. |
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| 8. | When will the Inventions Report data elements be published for comment? |
| | The GPC has revised the Inventions Report data elements based on input received on earlier solicitations for comments and the most recent forms used by various agencies, so the data elements should be published within the next few months. |
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| Audit Work Group Activities |
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| 9. | What action is the government taking in response to the “National Single Audit Sampling Project” June 2007 report? |
| | Based on the report, OMB established eight (8) OIG sponsored Single Audit Work Groups. The work groups are addressing the following topics:
- Revisions to A-133 and American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) Guidelines to report audit findings
- Revisions to A-133, AICPA Audit Guide, and OMB Compliance Supplement to document the required compliance testing
- Revisions to A-133 and AICPA for audit testing and sampling
- Revisions to A-133 to require Single Audit (SA) training; Development of training curriculum
- Review suspension & debarment process and identify alternative methods to address unacceptable audits
- Coordination with other SA constituencies for sanctions and punitive actions for substandard audits; Revisions to A-133 for proposed sanction language
- Coordination with PCIE to issue uniform standards on Quality Control Reviews.
- The New and Improved Single Audit Process
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| The GPC and Transparency |
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| 10. | Why is it important for Government spending data to be publicly available? |
| | Publishing spending data demonstrates to taxpayers where Federal dollars are being spent. By providing the spending data to the public, in a way that is easily accessible and searchable, taxpayers gain a better understanding of who the funds are being awarded to, for what purpose, and what is achieved as a result of the funding. This enables the public to hold the Government more accountable for its spending and encourages Federal agencies to identify and implement ways to make their spending as efficient and effective as possible. The Government’s commitment to transparency is demonstrated by the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-282) that requires Federal agencies to make spending data available to the public. |
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| 11. | How does the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act of 2006 (FFATA) affect grantees? |
| | FFATA mandates that grant data be posted and maintained on www.USASpending.gov, a publicly searchable website. For more information on the FFATA’s recipient reporting requirements, grantees should contact the agency who awarded them their grant. |
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| 12. | Where can I find information on transparency requirements for Recovery Act funding? |
| | For more information on the reporting requirements associated with Recovery Act funding please go to www.Federalreporting.gov. Those interested in viewing the data captured on Recovery Act awards should go to www.Recovery.gov. |
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| Grantee Participation |
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| 13. | Can the GPC provide a mechanism for grantee involvement so that grantees can provide their views at the time the policy is developed, before the documents are published in the Federal Register?
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| | The Federal Register is the standard mechanism for communicating with the community. Proposed policy is published on the Federal Register as a draft and is open for comments and suggestions from the community. The draft is then reconciled with the community's comments and either another draft is produced or the original draft is finalized, depending on the comments received.
The GPC believes that gathering input from the grantee community as early as possible is valuable, and will make every effort to maximize stakeholder input within the confines of governmental business and legal limitations. To this end, the GPC is currently working to develop new mechanisms to gather input from grantees on grant issues, and new proposed policies. |
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FAQs For Agencies |
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| Standard Forms and Reports |
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| 1. | Will the Performance Progress Report (SF-PPR) be required in addition to or instead of other currently used Federal performance or progress reports? |
| | The SF-PPR is intended to be a common form and format that can replace or incorporate the needs of existing OMB-cleared performance progress reports. It should not be used in addition to other reporting formats. |
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| 2. | I need to collect information for my Federal agency that is specific to my programs and grant projects. Can the Performance Progress Report (SF-PPR) serve my needs? |
| | Yes. The SF-PPR can be used alone or with a narrative response. The SF-PPR consists of two forms and five formats. The cover page is a form. The SF-PPR-F is a form that can be used to collect information in a quantifiable "yes/no" set of answers that relate to Performance Assessment Ratings
- Greater consistency across Federal agencies, programs, and grant projects;
- Eventual electronic submission through standard system-to-system interfaces; and
- Performance information that can be compared across programs and agencies.
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| 3. | Are Federal agencies required to use the Performance Progress Report (SF-PPR)? |
| | The SF-PPR will be available soon for Federal agencies to use as a "proof of concept" to test whether it allows stakeholders to submit or collect useful performance information. |
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| 4. | Is the Tangible Personal Property Report (TPPR) a new form or does it replace existing forms? |
| | The TPPR is a new form. There is currently no standard form that grant recipients may use for providing required information concerning tangible personal property. Several Federal agencies have adapted. |
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| 5. | When will the Tangible Personal Property Report (TPPR) be available for use? |
| | After review and consideration of public comments, the form will be released for use. |
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| 6. | What will be the advantage of the Inventions Report form? |
| | There are various approaches across Federal agencies for reporting on inventions developed with Federal funds. As with other forms being developed, this approach will allow for a Federal-wide reporting form to be used across agencies, allowing Federal funding recipients to easily learn and comply with use of a single standardized form, as opposed to use of multiple agency-specific forms. |
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| 7. | How will the Inventions Report work? |
| | Depending on the timeliness of recipients electronically reporting data on their Federally-funded inventions (e.g., through http://iEdison.gov) to the Government, the applicable data fields in the form will be auto-populated from the Government data system. The user will then verify and update the information for accuracy and completeness prior to submission of the report. |
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| 8. | Will all agencies be required to use the Real Property Status Report (RPSR) to obtain real property reports from their recipients? |
| | Agencies that provide real property to Federal Financial Assistance recipients for the purpose of performing under an assistance award will be required to use the RPSR when:
- Recipients use Federal Financial Assistance funding to purchase real property.
- An agency provides real property to a recipient of Federal Financial Assistance as government furnished property (GFP).
- A recipient improves real property using federal funding under a Federal Financial Assistance award.
- A recipient donates real property as a cost share or matching donation.
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| 9. | Can recipients use the Real Property Status Report for both reporting and requesting information from an agency? |
| | Yes, recipients can use the RPSR to report the current status of any acquired real property. They can also use it to request authority to acquire, improve, or furnish (as GFP) real property as well as to request disposition instructions when the property is no longer needed for its original intended purpose under the award. |
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