Category: Regulations

Policies and procedures matter!

There was an interesting article online about a recent audit of the Charlotte Douglas International Airport. No fraud or deliberate mismanagement was uncovered by the auditors but they did find insufficient oversight of contracts, grants, procurement, etc. The interim aviation director, Brent Cagle, summed up the audit best by describing how it hurts the airport’s credibility, “it erodes confidence…and we need to restore that.”

One of the audit’s findings, though, blew me away:

“There are no formal, documented policies and procedures at Charlotte Douglas for important functions such as project management, bidder selection on contracts, grant compliance reporting and change orders on contracts. McGladrey [the external auditor] said the lack of such written policies ‘increases risk of errors and omissions.'”

Shocking!

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Safeguarding sensitive information

The Uniform Guidance for federal grant management places a greater emphasis on safeguarding personally identifiable information than earlier versions of grant management regulations. Non-federal organizations (private and public) need to update their policies and procedures manuals to reflect this new requirement if they don’t already have an existing policy. Below is language The Grant Doctors developed for its policies and procedures manual template.

Please feel free to modify it for your organization’s specific circumstances. Don’t simply cut-and-paste it into your policies and procedures manual, then forget about it. Read it, digest it, understand it, customize it and use it.

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Federal grant management super circular is here!

After many years of waiting, the new grant management super circular is here. Download the document from the Government Printing Office here (.pdf file). The super circular combines the administrative requirements, cost principles and audit requirements for nonprofit organizations, state and local governments and institutions of higher education.