Avoid Confusion by Keeping Up With Changing Grants Developments
Although we here at Thompson Grants are immersed in all the latest developments happening governmentwide related to federal grants, there are others out there who are busily managing their programs and may have missed new updates to our reports. This was brought to our attention recently in reference to a key update that OMB made this summer about the Federal Audit Clearinghouse (FAC).
In April, OMB hosted an informational session with the grants community to explain that the FAC was transitioning from the Department of Commerce Census Bureau to the General Services Administration on Oct. 1, 2022. In response, we posted an article (“Audit Clearinghouse To Transition To GSA on Oct. 1”) for our subscribers in May about the October transition, noting that due to this change, federal fiscal year (FY) 2022 single audit packages — and those for fiscal years going forward — must be sent to the GSA FAC. We’ve recently found that some grantees may have heard about this through our article or other venues and had made preparations to submit their audits to the GSA FAC.
However, these grantees may have missed an update that we reported in July. OMB announced then that the FAC transition had been delayed until October 2023 to allow for more pilot testing (“FAC Transition From Census to GSA Has Been Delayed to October 2023”). Because of the delay, federal fiscal year (FY) 2022 single audit packages will continue to be sent to the current FAC at https://facweb.census.gov/uploadpdf.aspx, and not to the GSA FAC as previously directed. Single audit packages for FY 2023 — and those for subsequent fiscal years going forward — must be sent to the GSA FAC.
A GSA minimum viable product (MVP) (i.e., a small-scale initial version of the new site for pilot testing) is slated to be tested through January 2023. A more-expanded GSA FAC site is expected to be tested from January 2023 to March 2023, and then GSA intends to begin a phased rollout of the GSA site from March 2023 until Oct. 1, 2023, at which point all single audit packages will be sent to the GSA FAC site.
Some grantees may have missed this July update, as we’ve received reports of some confusion out there as to where to send their FY 2022 audits. Hopefully, this blog post will help to clarify where we now stand if they missed it the first time.
This isn’t the first time GSA has missed a planned deadline. The agency’s Integrated Award Environment had stated in 2020 that it would transition in December of that year to the new unique entity identifier (UEI) for nonfederal entities, replacing existing requirements for institutions to obtain a DUNS number. The transition, however, did not occur until April 4, 2022. Because of unforeseen changes in grants administration and systems development, it’s important to make sure that you are keeping up with the latest updates to ensure you are properly managing your awards and preparing your audits.
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