Federal Agency Review Period

ARRA Reporting Meeting

December 16, 2009

Topics for this Section

• Federal Agency Review Period– First Quarter Reporting (October 22 to 29,

2009)– Second Quarter Reporting (January 22 to 29,

2009)

• Changes for State agencies and institutions of higher education (IHEs)

• Sequence of events for responding to federal comments

Federal Agency Review – First Quarter Reporting

• Federal agencies should conduct their review the 22nd to 29th

• However, for first quarter reporting (Oct 22 to 29):– Federal agencies called and e-mailed State

agencies directly and requested changes to the data during the State agency review period

– These comments did not always affect data integrity and included wording changes to description fields

– This impeded State agency review

Federal Agency Review First Quarter Reporting

• During the Federal Agency review for the first period (October 22 to 29, 2009), the State of Colorado received 65 comments for 13 State agencies/IHEs

Federal Comments – First Quarter Reporting

Agency/IHE No. of Comments

University of Colorado 11

CDOE 11

Governor's Office 10

CDOT 8

CDPHE 6

CSU 5

CDPS 4

Dept of Agriculture 3

DOLA 3

Other - one each - CDHS, DNR, CDLE, Judicial4

Total 65

Federal Comments – First Quarter Reporting

• The majority of Federal comments concerned FTE calculation

• The Governor’s Office found FTE guidance from 15 different Federal agencies.

• Federal agencies seemed to be calculating– acceptable ranges of FTE for the grant based on

dollars ($ with no FTE or No $ with FTE) – dollars expended per FTE and again commented

when the ratio was outside an acceptable range

Additional Federal Comments

• Inadequate award description

• Inadequate quarterly activities description

• Unreported subrecipients

• Missing subrecipient expenditures

• Incorrect DUNS

• Incorrect zip codes

• Incorrect congressional districts

• Incorrect job count

Federal Communication Issues

• Multiple Federal reviewers on single grants providing conflicting direction

• Federal agencies demanding that expenditure and receipt amounts be changed even if the change was not supported by our accounting records

• Federal commenters contacting us directly by phone or email and refusing to enter their comments in the FederalReporting.gov system.

• A Federal commenter changing an award date on an award document requiring us to deactivate a grant actually awarded in the reporting period.

Federal Agency Review Second Quarter Reporting

• 22nd to the 29th for the month following quarter end

• January 22 to 29, 2009 – 6 work days:– Friday, Jan 22– Monday, Jan 25– Tuesday, Jan 26– Wednesday, Jan 27– Thursday, Jan 28– Friday, Jan 29

Federal Comments – Second Quarter Reporting

• Federal agencies should not make requests for changes during the State agency review period (Jan 11 – 21, 2009)

• Federal agency review period should begin on January 22 and end January 29, 2009

Role of Federal Agencies

• Review data submitted by prime recipients

• Where the Federal agency reviewer has questions/comments:– Notify State of Colorado by

• 1) comment on FederalReporting.gov• 2) e-mail to OITARRA.state.co.us

– Unlock the record with the comment

Changes for State agencies and IHEs

• First Quarter Reporting – Office of the State Controller (OSC) served as a “hub” for all Federal comments– Receipt:

FederalReporting.gov – OIT – OSC – State Agencies– Response:

State agencies – OSC (CMS, OIT) -FederalReporting.gov

• Second Quarter Reporting – OSC will “farm out” comments but will not respond

Changes for State agencies and IHEs

• Receipt: Two ways that State agencies and IHEs will receive comments:– Directly on FederalReporting.gov– E-mail from OSC to point of contact at agency

or IHE

Changes for State agencies and IHEs

• Response: State agencies and IHEs will– Input directly to CMS and – Respond directly to FederalReporting.gov

Sequence of Events

1. Review Federal comment from either FederalReporting.gov or

e-mail from OSC

2. Make necessary corrections directly in CMS

3. Go to www.FederalReporting.gov

Sequence of Events

4. Enter user ID and password

5. Click on “My Work Queue”

6. Click on the applicable federal award number. Only grants/contracts for your agency or IHE should be shown in your work queue

Sequence of Events

7. Click on “View or Add Report Comments”

8. Click on the “Reply” ButtonDescribe the changes you made

State that the record will be re-submitted

9. Enter your reply

10.Click on “Submit” Button

Sequence of Events

11.Copy and paste the federal comment and your response into a document for your internal records for audit purposes

Sequence of Events (cont.)

12. Send an e-mail to OIT with the federal award number no later than 4 pm daily

OIT’s emails:

andy.johnson@state.co.us

ruth.crawford@state.co.us

tenzin.gyaltsen@state.co.us

OIT will resubmit the revised record to FederalReporting.gov

Sequence of Events (cont.)

IMPORTANT: Agency/IHE must respond to FederalReporting.gov PRIOR to notifying OIT to resubmit the record

During the first reporting period, resubmission of records resulted in the disappearance of the Federal agency comment, and the record was not open to enter a response

Sequence of Events (cont.)

13.Go to www.FederalReporting.gov and verify that the changes are included in the record www.FederalReporting.gov

14.Deadline is 4 p.m. on January 29, 2009

OSC will e-mail instructions for responding to federal comments to points of contact