As is our annual tradition, when the Office of Management and Budget releases its Compliance Supplement, we halt the presentation of the snail pictures and offer up some fireworks. This year is no different. However, I feel like we should be presenting a triple dose of fireworks this year. Let’s just say, this past week was a busy one for the folks at OMB, and now it will be a busy one for the grants community as we read through what OMB has released, virtually simultaneously.

As we announced in our blog post last week, OMB updated its Frequently Asked Questions document pertaining to the uniform grant guidance. We have made this available to all at Thompson grants website here. The 47-page document adds 24 questions from the last version of the FAQ back in September 2014 and revises four questions. The document was developed in partnership with the Council on Financial Assistance Reform as one of its final deliverables. OMB disbanded COFAR earlier this summer, and COFAR’s umbrella organization, the Chief Financial Officer’s Association, will continue to make grants management resources available at http://cfo.gov/grants.

On Aug. 10, OMB also submitted its Report to Congress on the Data Accountability and Transparency Act (DATA ACT) Pilot Program. OMB stated that it is making the report available on its website here. Check the Thompson grants site for analysis on this important report to find out what this may mean for the grants community.

Lastly, OMB issued a notice in the Federal Register today stating that it released the 2017 Compliance Supplement. The notice is available here (although the link in the notice did not yet include the 2017 version as of Monday morning). Once published,  Thompson will included the 2017 supplement on our grants site. The 2017 supplement supersedes the 2016 supplement and will apply to audits of fiscal years beginning after June 30, 2016. OMB will accept comments on the supplement through Oct. 31, although OMB received no comments after releasing the 2016 supplement. The 2017 supplement deletes three programs, adds two programs, adds a program to an existing cluster and adds another program to create a new cluster. It also creates the 477 cluster, a cross-agency cluster, that applies to the departments of Interior, Labor and Health and Human Services and includes 10 programs therein. Appendix VII adds information related to treatment of an existing cluster if a new program is added to the cluster.

Looks like the summer reading list just got a little longer!

Let us know what you think about these three OMB documents. We’d love to hear from you.