Ever heard of a “sports wall”? Until today, I hadn’t. And again, until today I had not realized how much physical education is changing in the nation's schools. Thanks to the help of federal grant funds, PE is going more high-tech.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Single Audit Information Service.) The Maryland Mental Hygiene Administration, in response to recent audit findings, has established new procedures to ensure that statewide mental health service providers obtain required documentation identifying whether patients are eligible to receive treatment for mental health services paid by the state’s general fund.

Federal awarding agencies are preparing their regulations to integrate the Office of Management and Budget’s uniform grant guidance, which OMB will release in December, but that’s no reason for you as a grant recipient to sit back and wait for the changes. You should get your local policies in order. But where to start? Thompson’s here to help.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook). Potential recipients of federal awards don’t need to wait around for the revised federal agency regulations and processes that will be based on the uniform guidance and will guide their favorite programs. They can start preparing for them now by completely understanding the performance goal provisions included in the document.

In our unceasing efforts to make our electronic grants library more useful to the grants community, we have now made it even more interactive.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Single Audit Information Service.) The Legal Services Corporation is making available a new fraud guide to help its award recipients proactively detect and prevent fraud and regulatory violations. It also aligns with a major purpose of the uniform grant guidance. The guide was published by the LSC Office of Inspector General based on the results of 36 recent OIG investigations of fraud schemes and regulatory violations that cost LSC awardees more than $3.6 million. “The guide’s purpose is to provide suggestions for improvements to the management and fiscal oversight of [LSC grantees’] programs to help avoid program losses due to the misuse of funds in violation of LSC regulations,” OIG said. “Each chapter in the guide identifies potential issues faced by grantees and methods to detect and prevent them from affecting [their] program.”

Call it the “pillow test.” Or perhaps the “snooze factor.” These seemed to be good terms to use for determining the level of internal control that a recipient needs under the uniform grant guidance after hearing from a couple of key officials in the audit community during a webinar hosted last week by the Council on Financial Assistance Reform.

(The following was excerpted from an article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) The Office of Management and Budget’s uniform grant guidance clarifies how nonfederal entities should treat the salaries of administrative and clerical staff when charging these costs to their federal award.