Key insights
- The federal government has announced plans to hold grantees accountable for persistent audit noncompliance as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launches the Audit Enforcement and Risk Oversight (AERO) initiative.
- It’s important state and local governments adopt effective and efficient grant management practices to automate and streamline grant life cycle processes.
- Effective grants management systems can help government officials avoid frustration and funding clawbacks, meet reporting requirements, and improve their grants process.
- A grants management system can also help standardize data collection and reporting processes across your entire organization.
Discover how industry software can improve your grant management.
Grants management is a vital function for state and local governments, which rely on federal grants to fund critical programs and services across various sectors, such as health care, education, transportation, public safety, human services, and more. Federal grants make up a significant portion of state and local government budgets.
Proper federal grants management is even more important now that the government plans for stricter oversight as the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launches the Audit Enforcement and Risk Oversight (AERO) initiative.
Address potential government grants management challenges
Managing grants can pose significant challenges for government officials who must navigate complex requirements, regulations, and reporting standards for each grant program. Often this is combined with a lack of internal resources to effectively and efficiently manage the workload.
Consider these common grant management challenges:
- Inefficient manual methods
- Inadequate staffing
- Communication and coordination issues
- Complex compliance rules and regulations
- Resource and workflow issues, including turnover
- Lack of understanding or training on various requirements
- Inconsistent reporting
- Single audit preparation challenges
- No central management and documentation repository
Despite these challenges, state and local governments must verify compliance with applicable grant regulations and rules. Additionally, they must demonstrate accountability for proper grant fund usage or risk losing eligibility for future funding or facing legal consequences.
How to streamline government grants management
It’s important state and local governments adopt effective and efficient grant management practices to automate and streamline the grant life cycle processes, from pre-award to post-award to closeout and audit.
Options like grant management software can help:
- Reduce administrative burden
- Improve transparency and accuracy of data
- Enhance performance measurement and evaluation
- Strengthen the impact of grant funding on communities
Effective grant management systems can help state and local governments avoid frustration, meet reporting requirements, and improve their grant process. They can align grant activities to entity priorities and enhance accountability with reliable tracking of grant and project financials, goals, and performance metrics.
A grant management system can also help standardize data collection and reporting processes across your entire organization. With proper tracking, your government can better understand financial risk, strengthen grant compliance, and efficiently monitor all your grant activities.
“The advisory team at CLA was with us every step of the way as we established new processes and procedures to administer, allocate, and track spending of our American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds, which represented approximately a quarter of our annual budget,” said Kate Hartke, Director of Grants, External Funds, and ARPA Finance for the city of Somerville, Massachusetts.
“Our CLA professionals helped us not only adhere to the federal grant guidance and Treasury’s ARPA-specific program guidance, but also provided a common-sense sounding board for the decisions we were making as an organization and how we were standing up new programs to benefit members of the community and our nonprofits.”
How CLA can help with government grants management
CLA’s team of experienced professionals can help you with the process of grant management, whether you need assistance navigating grant applications or developing effective strategies to implement grant management policies and procedures.
Visit our grant compliance resources page for additional information.