GUIDELINES FOR REVIEW AND SUSPENSION OF NON-ESSENTIAL GRANTS
Governor’s Office of Management and Budget (GOMB)
February 27, 2015
Pursuant to Executive Order 15-08 issued by the Governor on January 12, 2015, the Governor’s Office of Management and Budget (GOMB) is establishing additional guidelines that shall be followed by State Agencies in complying with the Executive Order.
The guidelines in this memorandum supplement the GOMB guidelines for Executive Order 15-08 issued on January 15, 2015. The January 15th guidelines pertaining to “Applicability”, “Exclusions” and the “Definition of Essential” apply to these additional Guidelines for Review and Suspension of Non-Essential Grants. Please contact your GOMB division chief or analyst to receive your agency’s list of essential grants or grant programs that are excluded from these Review and Suspension of Non-Essential Grants guidelines. Federally-funded grants are also exempt from these guidelines.
Review and Suspension of Non-Essential Grants
Each State Agency shall immediately establish an FY15 Reserve in the amount of its grant funds that are unencumbered for non-essential grant agreements plus the amount of the unobligated balance of non-essential grant appropriations from all General Funds and Other State Funds. These reserves and directions apply to all executed and pending grant agreements. “Unencumbered” is defined as the amount of the grant for which costs that have not been incurred by a grantee for an executed grant agreement.
As soon as practical, each State Agency shall provide written notification to inform each grantee affected by the FY15 Reserve that the granting State Agency is suspending the grant, effective immediately, due to insufficient funding. As part of the suspension, the State Agency shall require the grantee to immediately cease incurring additional obligations and costs and to immediately cease spending any further grant funds until further notice.
Each State Agency, as part of the written suspension notification, shall require the grantee to submit a financial expense report or summary detailing all expenditures the grantee incurred from the beginning date of the grant through the date of the State Agency suspension letter. Any balance of funds for costs not incurred by the grantee shall be considered unencumbered and reserved by the State Agency.
An example draft of a grant suspension template is attached to assist your State Agency in providing the written notification to a grantee of a grant suspension.
The State Agency shall submit an FY15 report to GOMB within 30 days, or soon thereafter as may be practical from the date of this memorandum, that sets forth:
a) The fund and line item appropriation for the grant(s) or grant program(s);
b) The name of the grant program(s);
c) A brief description of the services or scope provided under the grant(s);
d) The name(s) of the individual grantee(s) issued under the grant program(s); and
e) The dollar value of the FY15 Reserve that pertains to the Suspension of Non-Essential Grants for each respective line-item appropriation and the dollar value for each individual grant agreement that was suspended.
Upon GOMB request, each State Agency shall provide a report to GOMB setting forth its plans for complying with its FY15 Reserves. The report shall specify the nature and level of any savings considered as part of compliance with the reserves which also are attributable to actions taken pursuant to the Executive Order as well as other information as directed by GOMB.
Please direct questions about the Executive Order and reserves to the analyst or division chief at GOMB assigned to your State Agency.