Summary
At least 26 federal entities distribute grants, often with differing administrative requirements. As a result, grantees may be diverting resources from program objectives to comply with varying administrative requirements. Congress, attempting to reduce this inefficiency, passed the Federal Financial Assistance Management Improvement Act of 1999, commonly referred to as P.L. 106-107. It required the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) to ensure that agencies streamline processes, develop common systems, and consult with grantees; it also required GAO to evaluate the law's effectiveness. In response, this report discusses aspects of grant administration that grantees identified as inadequate to meet the act's goals and on which further action was needed. GAO reviewed grantee comments on changes needed, obtained views from grantee associations and users of the Web portal called Grants.gov, performed detailed site visits at selected grantees, and obtained views of OMB.
While some progress has been made since GAO issued its report last year on interagency reform initiatives (GAO-05-355), federal grantees continue to identify areas where the goals of P.L. 106-107 have not yet been met. These include continued lack of standardization and continued inefficiencies in grant administration across agencies and technological difficulties with implementing Grants.gov, the Web site where grantees can find and apply for grants. Grantees report they continue to need to use different application, reporting, and payment systems, and definitions differ across agencies. Further, some inefficiencies continue to exist, such as agency grant processes not aligning with typical grantee business practices. In addition, problems using Grants.gov, such as search engine problems and complex registration practices, have caused grantees frustration as they have used the site for identifying and applying for grant opportunities. The Grants.gov Program Management Office has taken actions to address some of these problems and has plans for further improvements. Grantees GAO interviewed were concerned that, while the three federal cross-agency initiatives underway to streamline grant administration--Grants.gov, the Grants Management Line of Business, and the cross-agency workgroups--were moving forward, progress to date has been inadequate. Grantees identified two specific areas where the management of P.L. 106-107 initiatives contributed to the lack of progress. They pointed out that inadequate ongoing communication with grantees before decisions on changes were made resulted in poor implementation and prioritization of initiatives. Grantees also said lack of clear objectives and a public time line for the reform process sometimes prevented them from understanding the scope and timing of planned changes.
Recommendations
Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director:
Team:
Phone:
Stanley J. Czerwinski
Government Accountability Office: Strategic Issues
(202) 512-6520
Matters for Congressional Consideration
Recommendation: Given that the goals in P.L. 106-107 are not likely to be met by the sunset date of November 2007, Congress may wish to consider reauthorizing the law to make certain that federal agencies have clear requirements to continue these efforts and the momentum for progress in streamlining grant administration continues. As part of the reauthorization process, Congress may wish to consider ensuring that agencies and cross-agency teams are setting goals and making progress toward P.L. 106-107's objectives.
Status: Closed - not implemented
Comments: As of March 2008, Congress has not taken legislative action to extend the law, and its sunset date of November 2007 has passed. However, the Grants Policy Committee will continue to implement the grant streamlining initiatives. It has developed a strategic plan and is now developing an implementation plan that will contain specifics, including time frames. According to the Chairman of the Grants Policy Committee, this plan will be used to inform the grant community that although PL 106-107 has expired, the initiative of grant streamlining will continue. He noted that the decision to continue with an implementation plan was made with the approval of OMB's Office of Federal Financial Management.
Recommendations for Executive Action
Recommendation: OMB should ensure that the Grants Executive Board and the Grants Policy Committee identify and implement approaches to obtaining grantees' input as policies and procedures are being developed by these lead groups.
Agency Affected: Executive Office of the President: Office of Management and Budget
Status: Open
Comments: In our July 2006 report, we concluded that action was still needed to ensure that grantees have adequate input early in developing solutions on grants streamlining and recommended that the Grants Policy Committee and the Grants Executive Board develop and implement approaches to soliciting grantee input on an ongoing basis. As of October 2008, the Grants Policy Committee said they were considering how to involve the grantee community as policies are being developed. During our review in 2008 and 2009 (see GAO-09-589), grantee associations continued to express the need for early input into policies that could help streamline and standardize grants policies government wide in order to improve the grant application experience for applicants and reduce applicant burden. In that report, we reiterated the need for grantee input into the reform efforts and recommended further that OMB work with HHS, the Grants Policy Committee, and other stakeholders to identify and implement government wide policies for processing grant applications, with the goals of minimizing applicant confusion and burden. OMB staff provided oral comments and generally agreed with our findings and recommendations. OMB staff also provided technical comments.
