How Grantees Should Use GAO's Green Book for Internal Control Review

For years, the federal government’s uniform grants management guidance has required recipients and subrecipients to “establish and maintain” effective internal control over their grants that provides “reasonable assurance” of compliance with award terms and conditions. In the 2024 revision to that policy, the Office of Management and Budget made a couple of subtle word changes: It added the word “document” to its instruction, and stated that the documented controls “should align” with the Government Accountability Office’s Standards for Internal Control in the Federal Government — the GAO “Green Book.”

A recently revised Green Book emphasizes control activities that will prevent and mitigate weaknesses. So, with all the challenges you face in the current federal grant environment, reassessing grant internal controls for alignment with the Green Book has just been added to your to-do list.

This webinar will explore the implications of the revised standards and how your organization should apply them to your internal controls over grant-funded programs. We’ll review:

• The authoritative internal control framework
• The five standard elements of internal control
• The seventeen standard internal control principles
• Applicable practices and procedures
• Using appropriate concepts and language

And we’ll cover:

• What’s new and why that’s important?
• Strengthened risk assessment
• Scalability — adaptation to nonfederal environments
• Examples of preventive and detective activities
• Documentation expectations

Internal control over grants is a recurring federal theme. Make getting familiar with the state of the art a prudent and current action.

Who should attend:

• Grants program staff
• Financial management staff
• Executives
• Finance directors
• Federal program managers
• Internal auditors
• External auditors