TRANSPARENCY ACT REPORTING Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) Assistance Listing Number 93.558, COVID-19 93.558, 93.568, COVID-19 93.568 The Office of Grants Management, Division of Grant Administration and Reporting, is responsible for submitting the FFATA reports for the DHHR. The FF...
TRANSPARENCY ACT REPORTING Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR) Assistance Listing Number 93.558, COVID-19 93.558, 93.568, COVID-19 93.568 The Office of Grants Management, Division of Grant Administration and Reporting, is responsible for submitting the FFATA reports for the DHHR. The FFATA reports are available for all newly issued subawards and change orders throughout the DHHR each month. The source for these FFATA reports is the DHHR's subrecipient Grants Management Solution system (CRM) and an interface with the state accounting system (wvOASIS). Grants Management reviews each federal Notice of Grant Award to determine if reporting is required. Notes are input on the FFATA reports for each subaward as to whether that subaward is being reported or not. Grants Management then uploads and reviews the required data elements onto FSRS.gov before the reports are electronically submitted. For prior DHHR grant awards (e.g., fiscal year 2021), even if the DHHR passed through a portion of the award to other components of the State of West Virginia (i.e., other non-federal entities that are governmental agencies of the state but are external to the DHHR), the DHHR considered those other governmental agencies to be subrecipients of the DHHR instead of being part of the state's prime recipient tier. This viewpoint proved to be incorrect because transfers of federal awards to another component of the same auditee under 2 CFR 200, Subpart F, do not constitute a subrecipient or contractor relationship; furthermore, a grant agreement is the only means by which the DHHR can pass through a portion of the federal award to state agencies that are external to the DHHR. During fiscal year 2022, the DHHR revised its practice when awarding funds to agencies of the state that are external to the DHHR. The DHHR began considering those other governmental agencies to be part of the state?s prime recipient tier instead of being first tier subrecipients of the DHHR. Accordingly, when transferring federal awards to another state agency, the DHHR Office of Grants Management and DHHR Spending Units started working together as necessary to ensure that all subawardee information for the state is complete and accurate. During fiscal year 2022, the DHHR also revisited its standard grant agreement template in relation to other state agencies. Although changes to the main body of the grant agreement were not necessary, the DHHR made a revision to Exhibit G (?Required Reports?) of the agreement. When a ?grant? was provided to another state agency using federal funds as the source of the grant, in whole or in part, the Office of Grants Management instructed the spending unit to review the detailed line-item budget and conduct other pre-award procedures as may be necessary (e.g., inquiring of the other state agency) to determine if the other state agency planned to subgrant a portion of the funds. If the other state agency planned to subgrant a portion of the funds, the Office of Grants Management required the spending unit to include a clause within Exhibit G of the grant agreement that required the other state agency to provide the FFATA data to the spending unit on a monthly basis (due 15 days after the end of each month). Upon receiving the FFATA data from the other state agency, the spending unit was then required to submit the information to the DHHR Office of Grants Management for purposes of timely FFATA reporting to FSRS.gov. Prior to October 5, 2022, this process was accomplished via informal discussions (e.g., emails to and from other state agencies, monitoring calls, meetings held between the Office of Grants Management and spending units on a regular basis, etc.). Effective October 5, 2022, the DHHR formalized this process via a system directive from DHHR Finance to all users of the DHHR's subrecipient Grants Management Solution system (CRM). These additional controls should resolve the condition that led to the LIHEAP portion of the finding. For the TANF portion, the Context section of the finding references subawards from the West Virginia Department of Education (DOE). As additional context, when issuing their subawards, it should be noted that the DOE utilized TANF monies that it had received from the DHHR. When passing through the money to the DOE, the DHHR utilized a grant agreement since such an agreement is the only means by which the DHHR could pass through a portion of the award to another state agency. During fieldwork for the West Virginia Single Audit, the DOE informed the State?s independent auditors that the DOE subgranted a portion of the TANF funds to five different subrecipients; the State?s independent auditors then informed the DHHR. This was unbeknownst to the DHHR at the time. From a general regulatory perspective, the DHHR grant agreement required the DOE to obtain prior written approval from the DHHR before entering into any subgrant agreements with the funds. From a budgetary perspective, the DOE was required to contact the DHHR spending unit for prior approval and specific instructions regarding the subgranting of DHHR awards; provide the names of each organization that would receive subgrants, when known; and provide an overall narrative stating the purpose of each subgrant. From the FFATA perspective, the DHHR spending unit was required to utilize the DOE?s budgetary narrative, add a related reporting requirement within Exhibit G of the grant agreement, and utilize the resulting disclosures when submitting data to the DHHR Office of Grants Management for purposes of accurate FFATA reporting to FSRS.gov. The breakdown in controls happened because the DOE did not obtain prior written approval from the DHHR spending unit prior to entering into the subgrant agreements and did not indicate any subgrant expenditures within their quarterly financial reports and reconciliations of payments received and actual expenditures incurred, all of which are required per the terms and conditions of the DHHR grant. To enhance the controls, the DHHR spending unit will increase the level of risk associated with the DOE and will impose additional award conditions upon the DOE, such as requiring the DOE to submit certifications or written representations regarding subawards in the future, as are authorized per 2 CFR 200.209 (?Certifications and representations?).