Sneak Preview: HHS OIG Issues Self-Disclosure Guidance, Form

(The following was excerpted from a recent article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Office of Inspector General (OIG) recently issued guidance, and a related submission form, to assist nonfederal entities receiving HHS awards and their subrecipients in self-disclosing potential violations of federal criminal law involving fraud, bribery or gratuity violations.

HHS regulations mirroring the Office of Management and Budget’s uniform guidance mandate disclosures of criminal, and possible criminal, offenses that nonfederal entities must make with respect to HHS grants (45 C.F.R. §75.113). OIG’s Grant Self-Disclosure Program provides a framework for disclosing, coordinating, evaluating and resolving potential violations of law relating to recipient awards or subrecipient subawards. Under the terms and conditions of the award, recipients and subrecipients of HHS awards must make these disclosures to both the HHS awarding agency and OIG. While following the guidance under the Grant Self-Disclosure Program fulfills the obligation to disclose to OIG, a separate disclosure must also be made to the HHS awarding agency.

The OIG guidance states that if an award recipient or subrecipient learns of a potential violation of law relating to their award — regardless of whether the potential violation is of federal criminal, civil or administrative law and regardless of how the recipient or subrecipient learned about the potential violation — it must: investigate the potential violation; assess any losses suffered by the federal program(s); take corrective action; and make full disclosure to the appropriate authorities.

HHS award recipients and subrecipients also may voluntarily disclose conduct causing liability under the Civil Monetary Penalty Law (CMPL) (42 U.S.C. § 1320a-7a) or conduct that might violate civil or administrative law that does not clearly fall within the scope of offenses described at 45 C.F.R. §75.113.

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

Join us for our following Federal Grants Forum:
Federal Grants Forum for Experienced Grant Recipients | September 18-20, 2019
Federal Grants Forum: Dallas, TX | October 16 – 18, 2019
2020 dates to be announced soon!
Learn more at http://grants.thompson.com/conferences.aspx.