(The following was excerpted from an article in the Single Audit Information Service.)The California Department of Social Services plans to update its internal grant manual to instruct staff to review and document grantee program reports after the California Office of State Auditor found that the agency did not adequately monitor grantees awarded dollars from a state childcare fund.

So, just how well do you understand the grantee-subgrantee relationship? One of the most common audit findings occurs when a prime grant recipient has failed to correctly identify a subrecipient as such and has instead executed a contract. Such a finding can lead to the complete disallowance of the entire amount of the subaward.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) To boost compliance with the National Institutes of Health’s public access policy, NIH next year will not process a grantee’s continuation award if it fails to conform to the agency’s public access policy. The policy requirements also will be integrated into its new Research Performance Progress Report (RPPR).

I suppose as a journalist I should read up on all the news and information of the day. However, after hearing about last Friday’s horrendous shootings in Newtown, Conn., I haven’t read one story or watched one minute of coverage about it – as they said in the movie “A Few Good Men,” I simply cannot handle the truth. It’s just too sad.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) To help states develop more ways to reduce motorcycle crashes and fatalities, the Government Accountability Office has asked Congress to allow states to use the motorcyclist safety grants for purposes other than motorcyclist training and raising driver awareness of motorcycles, the current priorities, to expanded priorities such as helmet safety, impaired driving and licensing, including a promising practice of graduated licensing for teens.

Although I’m showing my age by saying this, one of my favorite guilty pleasures as a child was watching the game show “Let’s Make a Deal!” In case you’ve never seen it, here a clip. The show entails the host venturing out into the audience. Audience members are dressed up in outlandish costumes hoping to be selected for a deal of cash or “what’s behind the curtain/door/box” on stage. Sometimes they’ll select the cash, sometimes they’ll select the door. Who knows what's behind it? It could be a BRAND NEW CAR, or then again, it could reveal a live goat. Sure it was hokey, but for a 10-year-old in the mid-1970s, it made for quality television.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Single Audit Information Service.) Concerned that federal funds awarded under National Science Foundation cooperative agreements will generate improper payments, the agency’s Office of Inspector General urged the agency to develop improved cost surveillance policies and procedures, especially for high-dollar cooperative agreements.

Government collaboration to help needy families can only be positive. That’s why I’m glad to see the Food and Nutrition Service is expanding a demonstration program with the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to provide free meals to needy kids using direct certification, which helps to reduce the burden of school lunch applications for households and school districts, improve the accuracy of eligibility determinations and increase the number of eligible children certified for free meals.