Sneak Preview: Treasury OIG Updates CRF Reporting Guidance
(The following was excerpted from a recent article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) Nonfederal entities that receive direct federal funding under the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF), in response to new quarterly reporting guidance issued by the Department of the Treasury Office of Inspector General (OIG), will be required to list projects planned for completion using CRF funds, select a specific category for expenditures, and include detailed information for expenditures greater than or equal to $50,000.
The July 31 guidance updates CRF reporting and record retention guidance that Treasury OIG issued on July 2 for CRF prime recipients. OIG stressed that it has the authority to recover funds if it determines a CRF recipient has failed to comply with the reporting requirements. It will use reported data to support its CRF compliance monitoring and oversight efforts.
The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) (Pub. L. 116-136) appropriated $150 billion to the CRF to make payments to states, tribal governments and qualifying units of local government to cover costs that: (1) are necessary expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to COVID-19; (2) were not accounted for in the budget most recently approved as of March 27, 2020; and (3) were, or will be, incurred between March 1–Dec. 30, 2020. CRF payments may not be used for government revenue replacement, and may only be used if deemed by the recipient to be necessary expenditures incurred due to the COVID-19 public health emergency.
GrantSolutions (the federal portal at www. grantsolutions.gov) is developing a customized reporting solution to capture the use of CRF payments, which will be prepopulated with prime recipient data to include the CRF payment amount, date, recipient Dun & Bradstreet unique identification number (DUNS number), and contact information. Prime recipients will be required to report in GrantSolutions how they used CRF payments for costs incurred during the covered period. This information includes listing all projects the prime recipient plans to complete with CRF payments, detailed by project name, identification number (created by the prime recipient), description and status of completion.
(The full version of this story has now been made available to all for a limited time here.)
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