GuideStar, a nonprofit organization that seeks to promote transparency among the nonprofit community, delivered its first “impact call” Feb. 24 to publicly report its own results and “to jump-start the conversation on how transparency is defined and conveyed.” Transparency is proving to be a ever-increasing buzzword among nonprofits, as well as for all federal grants stakeholders.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Single Audit Information Service.) The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services plans to take steps to recoup overpayments made from 2011 to 2013 to individuals in the Assistance to the Aged, Blind and Disabled and the State Disability programs, as well as review the programs’ quality control procedures to improve their integrity.

Today we want to piggyback on the Office of Management and Budget’s recently released Frequently Asked Questions on the new grants reform guidance. Rather than letting you know our thoughts on a particular topic, we want to solicit your feedback and questions in an effort to find out what really is on your mind and what are your main areas of concern.

If you’ve ever purchased a home, you may have gotten this nervous feeling in your gut during the closing. Remember how you were presented with a stack of documents to sign with tons of legal language. Then you were asked to sign your name on the bottom line confirming that you agree with the aforementioned information. When we were buying our house, all I could think of was, “Should I really be signing this just because I was told to?”

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) The Massachusetts Office of Health and Human Services successfully overturned much of a prior disallowance from the Department of Health and Human Services for Medicaid reimbursements, winning $17.3 million back from a $21.5 million disallowance upon appeal. State health departments that provide supplemental Medicaid payments to medical facilities must receive timely and adequate notice from HHS, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Appeals Board ruled.

Back in 2009, it seemed like everything that came across my computer included the word “recovery.” This made perfect since as Congress had just passed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.  Now, it seems that the key buzzword is “transparency.” Like a window, people simply feel that government information should be open and available.

Got a question about the Office of Management and Budget’s new grants reform guidance? You’re probably not the only one. We have many ourselves. Now there’s a place to go. To help clarify some of the confusion related to the guidance, the Council on Financial Assistance Reform has developed a new Frequently Asked Questions section on the guidance. Although it announced Thursday that it had posted the FAQ on its website, it was unavailable as of noon Friday (perhaps due to the snow that shut down D.C. government offices on Thursday).

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Single Audit Information Service.) After hearing concerns in recent months about its interpretations to the Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards, also known as the Yellow Book, the Government Accountability Office is no longer considering a prior interpretation related to independence and is reviewing a second interpretation related to peer reviews.

As a journalist, when I cover meetings in which I hear speaker after speaker explaining their support or disagreement about a technical issue, I tend to perk up when a certain speaker delivers the unexpected line that really makes you chuckle while really proving a great point. At last Friday’s meeting in which the Government Accountability and Transparency Board heard stakeholder presentations on recommendations for the GAT Board’s 2014 priorities, Relmond Van Daniker, executive director of the Association of Government Accountants, delivered such a line.

When it was made into law in 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act offered a bold response to the nation’s growing recession, infusing federal funds at an aggressive pace to help the country attempt to get back on its fiscal feet. About $219 billion in grant funds were distributed to states and localities across a broad range of areas including education, transportation, energy, health care and housing.