Grants Management Scenarios SCENARIO 1: Parker School District received a TIF grant in 2012. It followed the guidelines set forth in the application package and did not list specific vendors in its application. Upon award, the district had to move quickly to put its program into place. District procedures required that all contracts valued at $100,000 or higher be competed through a full and open competition. The project director prepared a request for proposals for the evaluation contract and the professional development provider. This process took almost six months. During that time, the district began working with its schools, conducting focus groups and soliciting feedback on how to design the performance-based compensation system. The district hired a consultant, on a contractual basis, to do this work. The consultant was a retired superintendent of Parker School District who knew the district well and was very qualified to complete the required tasks. In fact, this former superintendent helped to write the TIF application. The total amount paid to the consultant with TIF funds was $18,650, so the district did not compete the contract. A) Are there any issues with the contracts entered into by Parker School District? B) Same facts as above, but now the grantee is a non-profit entity Parker School Foundation, and the former superintendent is a former executive director. Are there any issues with the contracts entered into by Parker School Foundation?
SCENARIO 2: The State of Windsor received a TIF grant in 2010 and it also received a TIF grant in 2012. Its 2010 grant included 10 districts and its 2012 grant included 4 different districts. Prior to receiving the 2012 grant, 3 people worked on the grant full-time at the State level. After the state received the 2012 grant, it hired 2 more people to work on TIF and decided to use all 5 staff across both projects, at different levels (FTE). Generally, most of the staff worked 60% of the time on the 2010 grant and 40% on the 2012 grant. In addition, an administrative assistant helped out on both grants, but his salary was mostly paid out of other State funds. The Department monitored the 2010 TIF grant in June 2013, and the monitoring team identified the following findings: 1) All 5 project staff members were completing signed, semi-annual certifications of their time and effort because they work 100% on TIF; 2) the administrative assistant was completing a Personnel Activity Report that was signed and submitted twice a month, but it only accounted for the time the employee worked on TIF; 3) The State of Windsor was reimbursing its district partners for indirect costs. A) Why were these 3 items/issues flagged as findings? B) If nothing had changed from the facts above and the 2012 grant was also monitored in June 2013, would all of the issues be flagged as findings?
Reference Materials (excerpts from Education Department General Administrative Regulations EDGAR, December 2008) for the purposes of this activity. Please refer to EDGAR for the complete regulations. 80.36 Procurement. (a) States. When procuring property and services under a grant, a State will follow the same policies and procedures it uses for procurements from its non-federal funds. The State will ensure that every purchase order or other contract includes any clauses required by Federal statutes and executive orders and their implementing regulations. Other grantees and subgrantees will follow paragraphs (b) through (i) in this section. (b) Procurement standards. (1) Grantees and subgrantees will use their own procurement procedures which reflect applicable State and local laws and regulations, provided that the procurements conform to applicable Federal law and the standards identified in this section. (c) Competition. (1) All procurement transactions will be conducted in a manner providing full and open competition consistent with the standards of 80.36. (d) Methods of procurement to be followed (1) Procurement by small purchase procedures. Small purchase procedures are those relatively simple and informal procurement methods for securing services, supplies, or other property that do not cost more than the simplified acquisition threshold fixed at 41 U.S.C. 403(11) (currently set at $100,000). If small purchase procedures are used, price or rate quotations shall be obtained from an adequate number of qualified sources. (3) Procurement by competitive proposals. The technique of competitive proposals is normally conducted with more than one source submitting an offer, and either a fixed-price or costreimbursement type contract is awarded. (4) Procurement by noncompetitive proposals is procurement through solicitation of a proposal from only one source, or after solicitation of a number of sources, competition is determined inadequate. (Approved by the Office of Management and Budget under control number 1880 0517) (Authority: 20 U.S.C. 3474; OMB Circular A 102) [53 FR 8071 and 8087, Mar. 11, 1988, as amended at 53 FR 49143, Dec. 6, 1988; 60 FR 19639, 19643, Apr. 19, 1995; 69 FR 31711, June 4, 2004]
74.45 Cost and price analysis. Some form of cost or price analysis must be made and documented in the procurement files in connection with every procurement action. Price analysis may be accomplished in various ways, including the comparison of price quotations submitted, market prices and similar indicia, together with discounts. Cost analysis is the review and evaluation of each element of cost to determine reasonableness, allocability, and allowability. (Approved by the Office of Management and Budget under control number 1880 0513) (Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1221e 3, 3474; OMB Circular A 110) 74.43 Competition. All procurement transactions shall be conducted in a manner to provide, to the maximum extent practical, open and free competition. The recipient shall be alert to organizational conflicts of interest as well as noncompetitive practices among contractors that may restrict or eliminate competition or otherwise restrain trade. In order to ensure objective contractor performance and eliminate unfair competitive advantage, contractors that develop or draft specifications, requirements, statements of work, invitations for bids or requests for proposals shall be excluded from competing for procurements. Awards must be made to the bidder or offeror whose bid or offer is responsive to the solicitation and is most advantageous to the recipient, price, quality and other factors considered. Solicitations shall clearly establish all requirements that the bidder or offeror shall fulfill in order for the bid or offer to be evaluated by the recipient. Any and all bids or offers may be rejected when it is in the recipient's interest to do so. (Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1221e 3, 3474; OMB Circular A 110) 75.708 Prohibition of subgrants. (a) A grantee may not make a subgrant under a program covered by this part unless specifically authorized by statute. (b) A grantee may contract for supplies, equipment, construction, and other services, in accordance with 34 CFR part 74, Subpart C Post-Award Requirements (Procurement Standards 74.40 74.48) and 34 CFR part 80, Subpart C Post-Award Requirements ( 80.36 Procurement). (Authority: 20 U.S.C. 1221e 3 and 3474) [45 FR 22497, Apr. 3, 1980. Redesignated at 45 FR 77368, Nov. 21, 1980, as amended at 52 FR 27804, July 24, 1987; 64 FR 50392, Sept. 16, 1999]
OFFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET 2 CFR Part 225 Cost Principles for State, Local, and Indian Tribal Governments (OMB Circular A 87) (excerpts from OMB 2 CFR Part 225, August 2005) for the purposes of this activity. Please refer to 2 CFR Part 225 for complete requirements. 8. Compensation for personal services. h. Support of salaries and wages. These standards regarding time distribution are in addition to the standards for payroll documentation. (4) Where employees work on multiple activities or cost objectives, a distribution of their salaries or wages will be supported by personnel activity reports or equivalent documentation which meets the standards in subsection 8.h.(5) of this appendix unless a statistical sampling system (see subsection 8.h.(6) of this appendix) or other substitute system has been approved by the cognizant Federal agency. Such documentary support will be required where employees work on: (a) More than one Federal award, (b) A Federal award and a non-federal award, (c) An indirect cost activity and a direct cost activity, (d) Two or more indirect activities which are allocated using different allocation bases, or (e) An unallowable activity and a direct or indirect cost activity. (5) Personnel activity reports or equivalent documentation must meet the following standards: (a) They must reflect an after-the-fact distribution of the actual activity of each employee, (b) They must account for the total activity for which each employee is compensated, (c) They must be prepared at least monthly and must coincide with one or more pay periods, and (d) They must be signed by the employee.