Practice makes perfect. That expression can apply to many topics ranging from playing the piano to swinging a golf club. A recent sampling project also shows that it can apply to single audits as well.

(The following was excerpted from a recent article in the Federal Grants Management Handbook.) A growing trend by federal awarding agencies toward using administrative agreements and other alternative methods to address recipient responsibility is effecting the overall number of suspensions and debarments that are issued annually by federal agencies, which declined for a second straight year in federal fiscal year (FY) 2016, according to federal reports.

Some organizational acronyms pretty much don’t need too much thought. In the food industry, most of us are familiar with IHOP and KFC. In the federal government, you typically don’t have to tell someone the full name of agencies such as NASA or EPA. However, in the auditing world, did you know that there are now two organizations with the acronym AICPA? Don’t get confused; they’re linked together.

This is why we here at Thompson offer an entire publication dedicated to the pre-award grant application process — to prevent mistakes like this recent one involving a West Virginia university.

(The following was excerpted from a recent article in the Single Audit Information Service.) The Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is developing internal procedures to support more consistent monitoring of states conducting section 1115 Medicaid program demonstrations, in response to a recent recommendation by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

In case you missed it, federal agencies are now under orders to streamline and simplify procedures and regulations to reduce administrative burden. To see this in action, take a look at what the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is doing. Today, FEMA proposed to revise its regulations pertaining to rulemaking by “removing sections that are outdated or do not affect the public, and updating provisions that affect the public’s participation in the rulemaking process,” such as the submission of public comments, hearings, ex parte communications, the public rulemaking docket, and petitions for rulemaking. The Federal Register notice on the proposal is available at https://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/FR-2017-06-07/pdf/2017-11559.pdf, and stakeholders can comment through Aug. 7.