American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA)
Reporting Requirements
(Updated 1 September 2009)
For PIs: What Do I Have To Do?
Your ARRA
awards require UTSA to report on the use of Recovery Act funds every quarter. OSP
will be coordinating the university’s reporting through FederalReporting.gov.
You do not have to register individually!
PIs will have five
(5) calendar days after the end of every quarter to submit the following
information to OSP (e-mail Dalila Burgos):
1. Quarterly
Activities/Project Description: A description of the overall purpose and
expected outputs and outcomes. For the reporting period, please mention (if
applicable):
· personnel in place,
· research underway, and/or
· equipment purchased and/or installed
2. Project
Status: PIs should self-evaluate the completion status of their ARRA-sponsored
project or activity. This evaluation should be based on performance progress
reports and/or other relevant non-financial performance information. For awards
funding a single project or activity, please choose one of the following
options:
· Not
started
· Less than
50% completed
· Completed
50% or more
· Fully
Completed
3. Jobs
Created/Retained – Narrative Description: A narrative description of the
employment impact of the Recovery Act funded work to date. PIs should provide a
brief description of (1) the types of jobs created and (2) the number of jobs
retained. Please do not combine these two figures. The narrative should
be cumulative for each calendar quarter.
4. Number of
jobs: A numerical estimate of (1) the number of jobs created and (2) the
number of jobs retained to date. This information should include new positions
created and existing filled positions that were retained to support of carry
out recovery Act projects or Activities managed directly by the recipient.
For more information, you can download our ARRA
Reporting FAQs for PIs.
Please remember that timeliness is important and
failure to provide responses may involve administrative redress.
What Do We Know?
The
Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has released Implementing Guidance for
the Reports on Use of Funds Pursuant to the American Recovery and Reinvestment
Act of 2009 (OMB Memorandum M-09-21, available on the OMB website at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/memoranda_default/.
This
guidance builds upon interim final government-wide guidance (74FR18449) for
financial assistance agreements (grants, cooperative agreements and loans) funded
by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
The OMB guidance establishes standards for
implementing three sections of the Recovery Act:
1. Section
1512 (quarterly reporting)
2. Section
1605 (Buy American provisions for public works projects)
3. Section
1606 (setting wage rates under Davis-Bacon)
In addition, the guidance describes how Recovery
Act funds should be identified and reported as a part of audit records and
reports under OMB Circular A-133.
UTSA has reviewed the reporting requirements to
ensure that we collect the necessary information within the university and have
delegated reporting to our sub-recipients.
Why Are We Doing This?
As significant recovery funds have now made their
way into local communities and the work to rebuild our economy continues to
gain momentum, it is essential that the public have access to information on
the manner in which funds are being expended at the local level. Recipient
reports required by Section 1512 of the Recovery Act will answer important
questions, such as:
·
Who is receiving Recovery Act dollars and in what
amounts?
·
What projects or activities are being funded with
Recovery Act dollars?
·
What is the completion status of such projects or activities
and what impact have they had on job creation and retention?
What Do We Have to Report?
Aimed at providing transparency into the use of
these funds, the recipient reports are required to include the following
detailed information:
·
Total amount of
funds received; and of that, the amount spent on projects and activities;
·
A list of those
projects and activities funded by name to include:
o
Description
o
Completion
status
o
Estimates on
jobs created or retained;
·
Details on sub-awards and other payments.
Who Does What?
A large
part of the data
elements that we are required to report will be compiled by the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) and Grants and Contracts Financial Services
(GCFS).
However,
there are specific items that we must rely on the Principal Investigators to
collect, namely:
1. Project Status: Evaluation of the completion
status of the project or activity. The status of the work that has been completed.
This evaluation should be based on performance progress reports and other
relevant non-financial performance information. For awards funding a single
project or activity, please choose one of the following options: Not started;
Less than 50% completed; Completed 50% or more; Fully Completed.
2. Jobs Created/Retained – Narrative Description: A
narrative description of the employment impact of the Recovery Act funded
work. This narrative should be cumulative for each calendar quarter and
at a minimum, address the impact on the recipient’s workforce. At a
minimum please provide a brief description of the types of jobs created and the
jobs retained .
3. Number of jobs: A numerical estimate of the
number of jobs created and jobs retained. At a minimum this information should
include any new positions created and any existing filled positions that were
retained to support of carry out recovery Act projects or Activities managed
directly by the recipient.
The Office
of Sponsored Programs will be communicating with ARRA-funded Principal
Investigators before each reporting period to collect this information. It is
very important that this information be sent to OSP in a timely manner (maximum
five-day turnaround from the communication date) so that the University can
meet its reporting requirements.
When Do We Have to Report?
As required
by Section 1512 of the Recovery Act and OMB guidance (2 CFR Part 176, Subpart
A), each recipient is required to report the following information to the
Federal agency providing the award ten
calendar days after the end of each calendar quarter, starting on October 10th.
The State of Texas has asked us to pilot the collection of this information for
the July 10th reporting deadline.
How
Can We Prepare at UTSA?
The University
will prepare for ARRA reporting requirements in the following manner:
1. Reporting will
be done by the Office of Sponsored Programs (Post-Award), with assistance from
the Office of Grants and Contracts Financial Services and the individual
Principal Investigators that have received ARRA funds
2. Each academic
unit (college and/or departments) should designate a person to collect
information as needed from ARRA-funded principal investigators and liaison with
the Office of Sponsored Programs
The Office of
Sponsored Programs will communicate with academic units to ensure that
reporting deadlines are set and met. Additional communication with updated
instructions or data elements will be given as well.
What Additional Recovery Act Implementation Guidance
is Available?
