Sneak Preview: GAO Finds Concerns with Grants Workforce Skills

(The following was excerpted from a recent article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) The Government Accountability Office (GAO), in a recent report, expressed concerns that the federal agencies it reviewed could not determine the administrative abilities of the grants workforce within their subagencies because they lack an effective mechanism to track the skills and training of these employees.

“Without sufficient monitoring and oversight, the agencies cannot have reasonable assurance that their subagencies are sufficiently training their grants workforce so that they have the necessary knowledge, skills and abilities to properly manage, administer and monitor the billions of dollars that the federal government spends on grants annually,” GAO explained.

GAO stated that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Chief Financial Officers Council (CFOC) are responsible for coordinating federal financial assistance priorities. In addition, the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) is responsible for providing leadership and guidance over federal agency training to ensure the effective promotion and coordination of the programs. However, there are no specific governmentwide training requirements for the federal grants workforce.

GAO reviewed the grants workforce at the departments of Agriculture (USDA), Education (ED) and Health and Human Services (HHS), determining that these agencies delegate the decision to their various subagencies as to whether grant employees should obtain professional grants certifications. Some subagencies required such certification of their grants employees, while others deemed it optional.

OPM, at the behest of OMB and CFOC, created the 1109 job series in 2010, which is a grants specialist classification for those federal employees whose job responsibilities primarily involve management of grants. At HHS, 739 (28 percent) of the 2,590 personnel in the grants workforce were 1109 job series specialists as of March 2018. Some 317 (5 percent) of 5,825 personnel in the USDA grants workforce were 1109 specialists. None of the 545 personnel in the ED grants workforce were 1109 specialists because, GAO found, ED emphasizes that grants employees have specialized ED grants program content knowledge (e.g., rehabilitation, special education, behavior science). GAO previously found that as of federal fiscal year (FY) 2016, some 2,035 federal employees were in the 1109 job series.

OMB has taken other steps to provide grants workforce guidance for federal agencies. In June 2017, OMB collaborated with CFOC and federal agencies to develop the Financial Assistance Career Roadmap Report, which is an optional tool for federal agencies to identify and document the competencies needed for successful job performance of federal financial assistance management professionals. The roadmap report is to be used to identify and prioritize training needed for the grants workforce. Following this release, CFOC issued an interactive version called the Career Roadmap Builder.

(The full version of this story has now been made available to all for a limited time here.)

As a reminder, our final Federal Funding Training Forum scheduled for 2018 will be Wednesday October 17 through Friday October 19 in Atlanta. Please let me know if you have questions or can make this forum. We hope to see you there!

http://www.federalgrantsforum.com/atlanta/index.html?src=EC

In addition, we are now offering a procurement boot camp Wednesday October 24 in Washington, D.C. Feel free to contact us if you are interested in this program!

http://www.thompsongrantsworkshop.com/dcprocurement2018/index.html