I have spent an incredible amount of time this week contacting grants management attorneys, federal officials and consultants trying to determine how the grants community should comply with the simplified acquisition threshold. If I wasn’t adamant enough in my previous requests for an update of the Office of Management and Budget grants administrative circulars, I really am now.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) As the Federal Highway Administration and states develop agreements for overseeing highway infrastructure project awards, FHWA must do more to clarify each party’s roles and responsibilities to ensure proper stewardship of funds, according to the Department of Transportation Office of Inspector General.

It’s not often you hear excitement over a decrease (unless you’re talking about losing that dreaded post-Thanksgiving girth), but the Office of Management and Budget is touting the latest figures on improper payments. Although the decline in improper payments during the last fiscal year wasn’t as steep as the prior year, any reduction in improper payments is something worth crowing about, which OMB Controller Danny Werfel has done in a recent blog post.

Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, the annual day in which many of us eat too much, watch a ton of football and scan the ads for the post-Thanksgiving sales (which at the rate we’re going starts, well, today). After doing a little reflection, I thought I’d share a few things I’m thankful for.

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Inspector General recently issued the “2012 Top Management and Performance Challenges” for the year, summarizing the 10 key management priorities facing the agency. Each year, grants management always seems to be one of those significant challenges, and this year is no different.

One of the disturbingly interesting things I enjoy about my job covering grants management and single audits is those occasional meetings I attend where an auditor or investigator is discussing fraud, complete with examples of recent fraud cases. What really amazes me when listening to the details of the fraud cases is the brazenness of the perpetrators. You just have to wonder how they were able to get away with it for so long?

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Single Audit Information Service.) While the North Carolina Office of State Auditor encouraged the state juvenile justice agency to conduct a cost-benefit analysis to determine if pursuing federal Foster Care funding would reduce state funds spent on administrative costs, the agency argued that such an analysis would require more resources than it can now handle.

It’s rare that you will see a document proudly signed by the leaders of both parties in the U.S. House, but desperate times call for desperate measures.

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(The following was excerpted from an article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) As the total amount of federal outlays in grants to state and local governments has grown to more than $480 billion as of fiscal year 2011, several areas of concern are threatening the appropriate management of those funds, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report.