Feds to streamline compliance rules, reporting
The Obama administration’s Office of Management and Budget released earlier this month a much anticipated proposal for revising compliance rules covering federal cost principles, federal administrative rules and non-federal audits.
The OMB also released an 89-page summary and description of the changes from the notice released last February.
The proposed changes, of critical importance for anyone responsible for detailing the use of federal funds for a school district, is intended to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of federal grant programs by eliminating requirements that are duplicative or no longer necessary, as well as strengthening oversight of grant funds.
Among other changes are plans to simplify grantee reporting requirements related to justifying salaries and wages charged to grants; directing more audit resources to preventing waste, fraud and abuse; and ensuring robust sub-recipient oversight.
According to analysis from the Washington D.C.-based law firm of Brustein & Manasevit, the most significant changes include an increase in the single cost audit threshold from $500,000 to $750,000 —notably lower than the