Common Federal proposal and award management system

AAU, COGR and APLU recommend a common federal portal for grants submission, invoicing/cash draw downs, and final reporting (e.g., progress, financial, equipment) with a single set of rules, forms and due dates (potentially using NSF policy and guidelines as a model). A common portal would significantly ease reporting burden.

- Consolidate federal proposal and award management systems, including payment systems, optimally with significant input from stakeholders, potentially through a committee of federal agency staff and stakeholder representatives. This could take the form of a single, web-based system that interacts with separate agency systems. For example, this single portal would have role-based access controls, allow for system-to-system data exchange (e.g., Grants.gov application process), and utilize online data file exchange mechanisms in standardized formats like XML or CSV (e.g., PMS data file exchange). Use of common data elements and standard federal forms, reports and due dates would enhance the usage of such management systems. However, a single system may be the optimal approach (versus multiple systems with a single interface).

A Uniform System for Proposal Submission and Award Management

In recent years, there has been a proliferation of electronic research administration proposal and award management systems imposed on grant recipients by federal agencies. This has frequently occurred with little or no input sought from those who must use the systems and without apparent interest in re-using or sharing good models that already exist. The Uniform Guidance, in §200.206, calls for “standard application requirements.” This means that there should be a uniform system for the submission and tracking of proposals and awards. The current situation requires both administrative offices and investigators to maintain access to a large number of grant submission portals as well as maintaining multiple sets of electronic credentials. Harmonizing the reporting requirements and elements among federal agencies will also reduce burden created by multiple systems.

Consolidating Federal Payment Systems

One reason that financial reporting is unnecessarily complex is the variation in systems across agencies. Institutions have to report financial data in multiple financial reporting systems, sometimes more than one system per agency.

- In a recent AAU-COGR-APLU survey, 48 institutions reported using an average of approximately 6.5 to 8.5 federal payment systems in FY14 (Low research: 6.5; Medium 8.5; High 8.4).

- Institutions were not asked to indicate which systems they use. Among those that did, roughly a dozen were identified including PMS; ACM$; ASAP; G5; GPRS; VIPERS; Payweb; WAWF; eLOCCS; Delphi and PARS.

central-reporting-portal

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Contractors and Grantees
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Reporting compliance requirements shared by prime and subawardees of Federal procurements and grants
Key Participants: contractors, grantees, cooperative agreement holders, and subawardees
- Question: If you could change one thing that would ease your reporting burden associated with your awards, what would it be (e.g. time, cost, resource, other)?
- Question: If you have reporting requirements to the Federal government, how are those met?
- Question: If you could create a central reporting portal into which you could submit all required reports, what capabilities or functions would you include?
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Contractors
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Procurement practices, processes, and reporting
Key Participants: Contractors and subcontractors
- Question: If you could change one thing that would ease your reporting burden associated with your awards, what would it be (e.g. time, cost, resource, other)?
- Question: If you have reporting requirements to the Federal government, how are those met?
- Question: If you could create a central reporting portal into which you could submit all required reports, what capabilities or functions would you include?
- Question: Are there any reporting areas in the FAR that are similar in nature to those in Federal agency supplements?
- Question: What other compliance information are you providing to the Federal government outside of the procurement process that could be used in procurement reporting and reduce duplication?
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Grantees
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Grants practices and processes
Key Participants: grantees, cooperative agreement holders, subgrantees
- Question: If you could change one thing that would ease your reporting burden associated with your grants or subgrants, what would it be (e.g., time, cost, resource burden)?
- Question: If you have reporting requirements to the Federal government, how are those met? (feel free to be specific about what is reported to whom and through what mechanism)
- Question: If you could create a central reporting portal into which you could submit all required reports, what capabilities/functions would you include?
OMB circular A-133:
- Question: If you could make a change to ease your reporting burden for audits under the Single Audit Act (i.e., audits required by OMB Circular A-133 which is being replaced by the Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200 Subpart F), what one thing would you change about reporting by the auditee?
- Question: If you could make a change to ease your reporting burden for audits under the Single Audit Act (i.e., audits required by OMB Circular A-133 which is being replaced by the Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200 Subpart F), what one thing would you change about reporting by the auditor?
- Question: If you could make a change to ease your reporting burden for audits under the Single Audit Act (i.e., audits required by OMB Circular A-133 which is being replaced by the Uniform Guidance 2 CFR 200 Subpart F), what one thing would you change about reporting to the Federal Audit Clearinghouse?
Uniform Guidance (2 CFR 200):
- Question: Are there requirements in the new 2 CFR 200 that need additional clarification for improved implementation with reduced administrative burden ?
- Question: What are the perceived burdens associated with the new standards such as the documentation of salaries & wages and time & effort (2 CFR 200.430), subrecipient monitoring (2 CFR 200.331), procurement standards (2 CFR 200.317- 2 CFR 200.324)?
- Question: How can the administrative burden associated with standards compliance be lowered?
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