[Federal Register Volume 67, Number 155 (Monday, August 12, 2002)]
[Notices]
[Pages 52544-52545]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 02-20257]
[[Page 52543]]
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Part IV
Office of Management and Budget
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Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999;
Implementation; Notices
Federal Register / Vol. 67, No. 155 / Monday, August 12, 2002 /
Notices
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OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET
Grants Streamlining Activities Under Public Law 106-107, Federal
Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999
AGENCY: Office of Management and Budget.
ACTION: Notice.
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SUMMARY: This Notice precedes five additional notices that relate to
the interagency grants streamlining effort, prepared jointly by the
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) staff and the interagency groups
dedicated to implementing Public Law (Pub. L.) 106-107, the Federal
Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999. This first
Notice provides background and contextual information for the next five
notices, which:
Propose revisions to Office of Management and Budget (OMB)
Circular A-133, ``Audits of States, Local Governments, and Non-Profit
Organizations,''
Provide information about the OMB decision to not revise
OMB Circular A-110, ``Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants
and Agreements with Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals, and
Other Non-Profit Organizations,'' based on comments relating to the May
1, 2000, Advanced Notice of Proposed Revision;
Propose a standard format for Federal agency use in
announcing discretionary grant and cooperative agreement funding
opportunities;
Propose standard data elements for Federal agency use in
creating grant funding opportunity announcement summaries, to be used
under the E-Grants initiative for its ``E-FIND'' option; and
Propose revisions to three OMB circulars (A-21, ``Cost
Principles for Educational Institutions;'' A-87, ``Cost Principles for
State, Local and Indian Tribal Governments;'' and A-122, ``Cost
Principles for Non-Profit Organizations)'' to clarify ambiguous
language, thereby preventing inconsistent interpretations of similar
cost items across the three circulars.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Elizabeth C. Phillips, Office of
Federal Financial Management, Office of Management and Budget,
telephone 202-395-3053 (direct) or 202-395-3993 (main office) and e-
mail: [email protected].
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The purposes of Pub. L. 106-107 are to (1)
improve the effectiveness and performance of Federal financial
assistance programs, (2) simplify Federal financial assistance
application and reporting requirements, (3) improve the delivery of
services to the public, and (4) facilitate greater coordination among
those responsible for delivering the services. Pub. L. 106-107 requires
the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to direct,
coordinate, and assist Federal agencies in establishing a common
application and reporting system, including electronic processes, and
uniform administrative rules for Federal financial assistance programs
across different Federal agencies.
Under joint leadership from OMB and a lead agency (the Department
of Health and Human Services) agencies are working together to make it
easier for States, local, and Tribal governments; universities; and
non-profit organizations to administer Federal grant programs. The work
is done under interagency work groups created in June 2000 to develop
and recommend streamlining and simplification proposals to the Grants
Management Committee of the Chief Financial Officers Council, and
include the Pre-Award, Post-Award, and Audit Oversight Work Groups. A
fourth group, the Electronic Processing Work Group, operational in 2000
and 2001, was integrated this year into the organizational structure
that supports an electronic grants (E-Grants) initiative. [E-Grants is
part of the electronic government (E-Gov) priority under the
President's Management Agenda.]
Streamlining improvements to the grant process were proposed in
hundreds of comments sent by 77 different sources responding to the
January 17, 2001, Federal Register notice. Many of those comments
directly relate to the proposals which follow this background Notice.
Future notices will propose government-wide standards for grant
applications and reports. OMB expects to issue these proposals in Fall
2002. E-Grants plans to deploy an electronic application process (E-
APPLY) using the government-wide standards in Fall 2003.
A. The next Notice proposes to revise OMB Circular A-133, ``Audits
of States, Local Governments, and Non-Profit Organizations,'' by (1)
increasing the threshold for audit from $300,000 to $500,000; (2)
increasing the threshold for cognizant agency for audit from $25
million to $50 million; and (3) making related technical changes to
facilitate the determination of cognizant agency for audit and provide
for Federal agency reassignment of oversight agency for audit.
This Notice was endorsed by the Audit Oversight Work Group, whose
goal under grants streamlining is to ensure that audits provide useful
and reliable information to Federal agencies and pass-through entities,
and that recipient audits are in compliance with Federal audit
requirements. An audit threshold increase, as proposed from $300,000 to
$500,000, would relieve almost 6,000 entities from the audit
requirements of Circular A-133 while retaining audit coverage for 99.5
percent of Federal awards currently audited (in dollars).
B. The third Notice explains the conclusions reached by OMB and the
Grants Management Committee of the Chief Financial Officers (CFO)
Council regarding a previous request for comment from Federal agencies
and grant recipients, in May 2000, on the merits of pooled payment
systems and grant-by-grant payment systems. The proposal to amend OMB
Circular A-110, Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and
Agreements with Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals and Other
Non-Profit Organizations, that would have required Federal agencies to
offer recipients the option to request cash advances on a pooled basis,
resulted in 65 comment letters from universities, State and local
government agencies, Federal agencies, and other sources. There were
differing perspectives on the issue, leading OMB and the CFO Council to
believe that a revision to Circular A-110 is not needed. This Notice
was prepared by the Post-Award Work Group after analysis of the
comments received in response to the May 1, 2000, Advanced Notice of
Proposed Revision.
C. The fourth Notice proposes a government-wide standard format for
Federal agency use in announcing discretionary grant and cooperative
agreement funding opportunities. Each year the agencies publish
hundreds of funding opportunity announcements for discretionary grants
under programs with a broad range of purposes, to give potential
applicants the information they need, such as the types of activity the
agency will support, who is eligible to apply, and when/how to apply.
Comments from the applicant and recipient communities noted vast
differences in Federal agencies' announcement formats, making it hard
for potential applicants to quickly locate key information, such as who
is eligible to apply or whether cost sharing is required. Commentors
asked for clear language in announcements and consistency in the
placement of information.
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This Notice was developed by the Pre-Award Work Group after a
review of agency announcements and related business processes. The
group developed the standard format for government-wide use, which will
make it easier for potential applicants to quickly find the information
they need.
D. The fifth Notice proposes standard data elements for Federal
agency use in creating grant funding opportunity announcement
summaries, to be used under the E-Grants initiative for its E-FIND
option. The E-Grants initiative plans to provide a single Internet site
for Federal agencies to post electronic summaries, or synopses, of the
funding opportunity announcements on the General Services
Administration's FedBizOpps Internet site (http://www.FedBizOps.gov).
E-FIND will greatly facilitate a potential applicant's search for
funding opportunities.
This Notice was prepared by the Pre-Award Work Group, which made
use of previous work on a set of FedBizOpps data elements completed by
the Inter-Agency Electronic Grants Committee. The earlier work proposed
a limited set of synopsis data elements (nine) to be used in a pilot on
the use of FedBizOpps for grant opportunities. The result of that pilot
demonstrated that agencies could, indeed, use the FedBizOpps Internet
site to post electronic synopses of funding opportunities leading to
the award of grants, cooperative agreements, and other financial
assistance instruments. The Pre-Award Work Group expanded the synopsis
to become a standard data set of twenty data elements. These data
elements and the posting of information at the FedBizOpps site respond
to many comments received during the Public Law 106-107 consultation
process. Commentors requested a single searchable Internet site for
information about Federal agencies' funding opportunities, to reduce
potential their frustration with having to search multiple sites that
individual Federal agencies configure in different ways.
E. The sixth and final Notice relating to grants streamlining
proposes revisions to three OMB circulars (A-21, ``Cost Principles for
Educational Institutions;'' A-87, Cost Principles for State, Local and
Indian Tribal Governments;'' and A-122, ``Cost Principles for Non-
Profit Organizations'') to clarify ambiguous language, thereby
addressing many grantee concerns expressed in the comments relating to
the Public Law 106-107 initial plan published in the Federal Register
on January 16, 2001. Commentors noted inconsistent allocation methods
and different interpretations about indirect cost recovery. The three
circulars apply to different types of recipient organizations and were
developed separately. Consequently, different language is used in the
three circulars to describe similar cost items, sometimes causing
inconsistent interpretations by Federal staff, recipients, and
auditors.
This Notice was prepared by the Cost Principles Subgroup of the
Post-Award Work Group, after reviewing 74 cost items in the three
circulars for consistency. The Subgroup determined that 11 cost items
can be deleted, 22 cost items do not need changes, and 41 cost items
need common language in the three circulars. The Notice proposes
revisions to incorporate consistent descriptions of similar cost items
and, where possible, clarify existing policies in the three circulars.
Information about the proposed revisions is also available on the OMB
Internet site (http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/grants).
Dated: July 31, 2002.
Mark W. Everson,
Controller.
[FR Doc. 02-20257 Filed 8-9-02; 8:45 am]
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