Quick! Clear your schedules for Thursday afternoon (assuming you have that option). The Council on Federal Financial Reform and the Office of Management and Budget are hosting a two-hour webinar Oct. 2 starting at 1 p.m.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Single Audit Information Service.) The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Medical Assistance seeks to implement best practices by March 2015 to better ensure that only qualified providers can enroll in the state’s Medicaid program, in response to a recent audit by the North Carolina Office of State Auditor.

If you’ve ever had major remodeling work done on your house, you know how frustrating it can be if delays in progress extend the completion date. I personally considered myself lucky when the three-week kitchen remodel our family went through a couple of years ago took a little over a month, knowing that some projects often take much longer. Still, as the days mounted, we grew increasingly weary of the noise and the dust, and were more than ready for the work to be done.

Planning to cheat your state’s unemployment system? Think again. The Department of Labor this week issued more than $87 million nationwide to improve state unemployment insurance programs. The funds will allow state agencies to implement program integrity and system improvement activities, and expand reemployment and eligibility assessment programs.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) The Food and Nutrition Service has issued to state educational agencies (SEAs) and local educational agencies (LEAs) the 2014 version of the Eligibility Manual for School Meals, which implements new applicant review requirements for high-risk LEAs.

While attending the Federal Demonstration Partnership meeting on Thursday here in Washington, a certain song kept coming to mind — the old Paul Simon hit “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover.” Now, if that seems odd, it’s really not the whole song that needs mentioning, just one short lyric — “Don’t need to be coy, Roy.” If there is any particular word that described the federal government officials when providing their updates at the meeting, that word would definitely be “coy.”

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Single Audit Information Service.) Auditees and auditors preparing the Data Collection Form to submit with a single audit reporting package to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse should be aware of process changes expected for the next revision of the form that are aimed at conforming with the uniform grant guidance.

It’s time again for my annual blog post based on my once-a-year golf outing with my brother. In the past, I’ve been able to take some the lessons learned from my horrific rounds of golf and relate those lessons, in one way or another, to grants. For example, two years ago I played for the first time in two years but didn’t bother practicing ahead of time or go to the driving range, thus leading to a round I would much rather forget.  I used the opportunity to discuss how grant applicants that haven’t submitted a proposal in quite some time should realize that grant application processes have changed (and this was before the passage of the uniform guidance) and to get up to speed on them before forging ahead like I did with my golf game.

What is it with the Office of Management and Budget and holidays? After issuing the uniform grant guidance last year on the day after Christmas (and setting an implementation date for Dec. 26 of this year), OMB and the Council on Financial Assistance Reform recently released its second set of Frequently Asked Questions — on the Friday afternoon before Labor Day! Perhaps they wanted to give the grants community something to read while folks were taking their last summer beach vacation.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plans to issue guidance to states explaining their responsibilities for participating in the Medicaid Interstate Match in response to a recent recommendation by the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General.