Behind the Curtain at TCG

GAO issues FFATA report

On Friday GAO issued its expected report on FFATA. The summary is here and the full document is available here. The key findings are that:

• Subaward data isn't close to be collected, and should be
  
• Data quality is questionable, with most records lacking some required data
  
• OMB has yet to issue an annual report about FFATA to Congress

In my opinion, a major constraint in the management of FFATA at OMB is a lack of personnel dedicated to it. Like most other agencies, OMB has too few people doing far too much, and the burdens of FFATA are significant. This also points to a broader need: to establish an office in OMB whose mission is to monitor and support Federal financial assistance. There's already an office that focuses on procurement, but procurement is tiny compared to grant-making in government. The advent of FFATA (and this report) has highlighted that more resources are need to manage grant-making policy and processes in government.

2010 Excellence.Gov Awards registration now open

The Excellence.Gov Awards recognize the very best in government IT programs every year, and registration for this year's awards luncheon is now open at the ACT/IAC web site. The event will be held on April 29, starting at 11.30am. (Disclosure: I'm a judge on this year's awards, and one of TCG's projects was the overall winner last year.)

The awards ceremony is always an enjoyable event, as you can learn about and mingle with the people responsible for some of the most effective, high-impact, and innovative projects in the federal government. This year's theme is "Game Changers: Significant Improvements in Mission Delivery," and it's yielded some very interesting nominations!

Come join the party on the 29th.

Tom Cooley joining Deloitte

I thought others would be interested to learn that Tom Cooley, former CFO of the National Science Foundation, chair of the Grants Policy Committee, and mover-'n'-shaker in grants management in general, is set to join Deloitte & Touche. More information is in the press release, here.

Global Warming Can Cause Snow!

Watching the evening news, I saw yet another person ponder the unusually cold weather and claim "I thought global warming was supposed to be a bigger deal...".  Here's the fun fact: global warming causes amazing new patterns of snow and heat, consistent to what we are witnessing now.  How?

Take a look at the double pendulum simulator at: http://www.myphysicslab.com/dbl_pendulum.html .  Global warning represents a shift of the pendulum a bit to the right, so grab the middle ball and move it to the right.  You'll notice that the bottom ball swings rather wildly.  The more you disturb the middle ball, the more wildly the second ball swings.  This chaotic behavior is seen with a pendulum with only two balls.

Now realize that the Earth's weather is like a pendulum with billions of balls.  If you add more energy (through global warming) you'll end up with gigantic chaotic behavior with balls swinging more to the left (colder) and to the right (hotter) than usual as well as the average of the balls moving to the right (the actual global warming).  So instead of thinking, "hey, it's unusually cold, that means global warming is false," after looking at the double pendulum I suggest you consider: "hey, it's unusually cold, they may be right..."

NGMA webcast moved to 2/17/10 (confirmed)

This is still in flux a little but the NGMA webcast scheduled for tomorrow (February 10th) is tentatively rescheduled to February 17th. NGMA will confirm this soon, I'm sure.

Update 2/9/10 14:52: The rescheduled meeting is now confirmed for 2/17/10. All existing registrations will be valid.

NGP requests Grants.gov improvement suggestions

From our friends at the National Grants Partnership:

The team at Grants.gov is soliciting your input to the below questions concerning the next generation of Grants.gov. We would appreciate if you could provide you thoughts to thengp@aol.com no later than COB next Wednesday, February 10th. We will then organize the responses and send to Grants.gov team. Thank you for your continued interest in a more efficient and effective grants process. -The NGP

Questions:
1. What are the top 5 improvements you would like to see in the current Grants.Gov site?
2. What are the top 5 problem-areas of the current Grants.Gov site? What CAN'T you currently do or what is TOO HARD to do?
3. Outside of Find and Apply functionality, what other aspects of the Grants Management Lifecycle would you like to see in the NextGeneration of Grants.Gov?

Grants.gov wants your enhancement suggestions

Grants.gov has published a form on which applicants can submit suggestions for ways in which the system could be improved. Weirdly, it's a Word document (how about an online form?!) but it's certainly an excellent step to gather customer comments and suggestions to help guide the Grants.gov development path.

Maryland's Merril Oliver Appointed to Presidential Executive Order Workgroup

Hot news just in from NGMA:

The President of the National Grants Management Association (NGMA) and Deputy Director of the Maryland Governor's Grants Office, Merril Oliver, was appointed today to an Executive Order workgroup signed into effect by President Barack Obama, November 2009, to explore "administrative actions designed to improve the incentives and accountability of State and local governments, as well as other entities receiving Federal funds, for reducing improper payments...." Oliver is one of 4 high-ranking state officials on the 16-member workgroup comprised of federal and state representatives.

Oliver states that she is "excited to collaborate with such distinguished colleagues to offer a positive solutions-based approach to reducing improper payments and driving increased accountability for direct measurable results with expenditure of federal funds." The workgroup is charged with offering its recommendations to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) within 180 days of enactment of Presidential Executive Order #13520.

Congratulations, Merril!

GSA setting up "Grants Management" schedule

GSA is setting up a new "Grants Management" SIN (Special Item Number) on their Financial and Business Solutions (FABS) Schedule, a GSA contract through which Federal agencies can buy services. An industry day is being held tomorrow. Registration info is here. The new SIN will:

"Support and assist federal grants management personnel in all phases of the grants management process including, but not limited to, assessing compliance of grantees' business and financial management systems, assisting awarding agencies in ensuring grantees' responsible and accountable use of grant funds, assisting with ensuring that grantees' performance is in full compliance with grants requirements, assisting government Grants Management Officers, Grant Management Specialists, and other grants management personnel, advising government personnel in managing Grant Financial Management systems, managing the project period of performance schedule, evaluating on-going status reports, final reports, and other deliverable products required under the grant program, and assisting in grant close-out procedures."

1512 Reporting Extended until January 22, 2010

Just got this release via Cornelia Chebinou of the NGP...

Recovery Act Reporting Period Extended until January 22, 2010

WASHINGTON—The Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board, acting to provide the public with as complete a picture as possible of Recovery Act spending, has decided to allow recipients to submit reports until midnight, PST, January 22.

The change gives an additional week to recipients to get their reports filed at FederalReporting.gov. This is the second reporting period under the Recovery program, and recipient data will be posted on Recovery.gov on January 30.

In a statement, the Recovery Board, consisting of Chairman Earl E. Devaney and 12 Inspectors General, said:

“An overarching goal of the Recovery Act is to make data available to the American public that is as complete and accurate as possible. Several significant changes have been made to the reporting process that appear to have impacted recipients’ ability to submit timely reports. These changes include the release of revised reporting guidance by the Office of Management and Budget and implementation of edit checks designed to increase the accuracy of the data being reported.

“These changes, coupled with the reporting period coinciding with a national holiday period, led to the decision to extend reporting until January 22. Recipient reports submitted after January 15, the previous deadline, will be identified on Recovery.gov as late.’’