GRANTS MANAGEMENT

Under the CFO/ASA, the Office of Acquisition Management and Financial Assistance (OAMFA) is responsible for the Department’s enterprise-wide grants management policy, projects, and oversight.

The Department’s focus is to standardize policy and procedures for its grant and cooperative agreement programs in order to strengthen compliance, work towards a single automated grants management system, and enhance/formalize workforce education. Targeted efforts are underway to transform the decentralized Department grants management community into an effective and efficient partnership. The sharing of resources and responsibilities to accomplish enterprise goals is a recurring theme throughout the partnership effort.

The Department is an active participant in the government-wide implementation of Public Law (PL) 106-107 (The Federal Financial Assistance Improvement Act of 1999) to simplify and automate the grants process, including participation on several related interagency workgroups. OAMFA oversees development of the Department’s PL 106-107 annual report to Congress which details progress in achieving the objectives of the act. The act sunsets in 2007 and the final report will be transmitted to Congress in January 2008. Thereafter, the OAMFA Grants Management Division will continue to steer the Department’s grants process streamlining efforts in accordance with guidance issued by OMB in collaboration with the government-wide Grants Policy Committee (GPC). Key to that effort will be the creation of a Department-wide training and certification program for grants staff that will align over time with that being developed by the GPC work group on training and certification.

OAMFA coordinates quarterly Departmental Grants Council meetings and works closely with the OIG and General Counsel to implement sound policy and ensure consistency for the Department’s financial assistance programs. The Department is committed to the goal of strengthening its grant operations and improving its business processes to provide better services to its customers in the federal grant recipient community. An active partner in e-grants initiatives, OAMFA serves on the Grants Executive Board and the Grants Line of Business Taskforce, participating in workgroups and pilot activities. The Department is now fully compliant with Grants.gov, and has revised its Grants and Cooperative Agreements Manual and Standard Grants Terms and Conditions to recognize the emerging growth of electronic government. Continued review and updating of the manual will occur in recognition of the rapidly changing environment engendered by the transition to Grants.gov as the business processing model for federal financial assistance programs.

Integral to the Department’s effort to move aggressively into the world of e-grants is the continued utilization of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) Grants Online system, a back-office solution to the Grants.gov’s storefront. The system, which went live in January 2005, was designed to facilitate efficiencies through standardized business processes and provide a direct interface to other Departmental systems. It has demonstrated significant success in reducing paperwork, increasing accountability, and simplifying the post award process. The Grants Online system has also been identified as the solution to standardizing grants procedures. This standardization effort would align internal processes/procedures for federal Grants Management Line of Business system consolidation efforts.

Under OMB circulars, organizations receiving federal awards are assigned to a single federal agency (cognizant agency) which acts on behalf of all federal agencies in approving indirect cost and other rates for that organization. The Department is responsible for reviewing indirect cost proposals submitted by assigned grantee organizations and, based on those reviews, negotiates appropriate indirect cost rates. OAMFA’s responsibility for the management of this program continued throughout the fiscal year. New rate review procedures that were implemented during FY 2007 produced greater levels of financial analysis which resulted in financial savings to the Department through indirect cost rate adjustments from grantee’s proposed rate. Program focus for the coming year will include implementation of stronger internal controls, creation of a new tracking database, and documenting/communicating new program procedures.