Sneak Preview: Audit Clearinghouse To Transition To GSA on Oct. 1
(The following was excerpted from a recent Thompson Grants Compliance Expert article.) As of Oct. 1, the administration of the Federal Audit Clearinghouse (FAC) will transfer from the Department of Commerce Census Bureau to the General Services Administration (GSA) as part of an overall effort to add improved functionality through consistent data formats. As such, federal fiscal year (FY) 2022 single audit packages — and those for fiscal years going forward — must be sent to the GSA FAC.
The FAC (also referred to as the Single Audit Clearinghouse) collects completed single audit reporting packages (see ¶610 in the Single Audit Information Service Module) from auditees that are required to have single audits performed under the Office of Management and Budget’s (OMB) uniform guidance (§200.501). Auditees must submit one complete reporting package (regardless of whether it includes any findings) and a completed Data Collection Form (see ¶630), which identifies the federal agencies that have findings in need of attention (§200.512). The FAC also collects program-specific audit reports (see ¶640).
Using the information from the Data Collection Form, the FAC is responsible for incorporating audit information about each auditee, its federal awards and audit results into a governmentwide grants database. Federal agencies can use the audit database for awards administration activities (e.g., identifying major compliance problems). Other governmental units such as Congress and state recipients are also able to use the database. Pass-through entities sometimes use the database to verify the audit status of subrecipients.
In a recent innovation exchange webinar, Gil Tran of OMB’s Office of Federal Financial Management noted that the FAC in 2021 received about 39,000 submissions, and the federal government expects to see an even greater number of submissions this year as recipients of COVID-19 relief funding, as well as allocations through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Pub. L. 117-58) programs, will increase the number of entities that meet the single audit threshold of $750,000 in federal funds expended annually. In addition, OMB recorded 82,000 users of the information on the FAC, and more than 1 million searches within the FAC Image Management System (IMS).
The IMS (https://facdissem.census.gov/) helps auditors, auditees and federal program officials more easily gather information by enabling them to search the entire database using numerous search criteria, such as fiscal year, auditee employer identification number, auditee name, auditee state, Assistance Listings number, federal cognizant/oversight agency, major program and other categories.
(The full version of this story has now been made available to all for a limited time here.)
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