GAO Touts COFFA's Centralized, Coordinated Approach
Although specific news from the Council on Federal Financial Assistance (COFFA) has been lacking somewhat recently, a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report released this week highlighted the benefits of COFFA in making grants oversight more cohesive now than in past years.
Created in August 2023 as a centralized interagency body to oversee grants, cooperative agreements and other financial assistance, COFFA — now at its new website — played a large role in the development of the 2024 revisions to the uniform guidance (2 C.F.R. Part 200). COFFA is represented by 38 of the 40 grantmaking agencies that obligated grant funding and more than 99% of the total grant funding obligated by the federal government.
In a report to Congress, GAO explained that grantmaking agencies generally have some degree of authority to decide how to design and administer a federal grant program to best meet the program’s objectives, as long as the agencies follow the relevant statutes, regulations and guidance that apply to their grant programs. Prior to the creation of COFFA, each agency generally interpreted and implemented grants guidance and requirements independently, and in some cases, grant programs — potentially within the same agency — interpreted grants guidance and requirements differently. This decentralized approach often resulted in agencies interpreting the same requirements in different or conflicting ways, according to GAO, and grantees were sometimes hearing conflicting information from their programs.
COFFA meetings provide Office of Management and Budget (OMB) staff with opportunities to solicit input and feedback from agencies and for agencies to provide insight and implementation considerations on policies. “COFFA provides senior financial assistance officers (SFAOs) [representing each agency] with a forum where they can ask questions, prioritize concerns and make recommendations, to which OMB can directly respond,” GAO noted. “After COFFA meetings, SFAOs can share decisions and other relevant information with their respective agencies. This can help grant program managers interpret guidance and implement grants management reforms more consistently across agencies and grant programs.”
Such collaboration has not only proven vital for developing uniform guidance requirements, but it has also assisted in other ways, such as developing data standards and for initiating extension periods, such as for reporting submissions, for grantees affected by natural disasters, GAO added.
The report did not include any recommendations for OMB, but it should be obvious that this council should continue to be maintained going forward, particularly as new revisions to the uniform guidance are reportedly in the works.
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