On October 27, 2011 the Office of Management an Budget (OMB) dissolved the Grants Policy Council (GPC) and the Grants Executive Board (GEB), and created the Council on Financial Assistance Reform (COFAR) Memorandum M-12-01.
COFAR was established as a result of the recognized need for a formal coordination body to oversee Federal grants and cooperative agreements flowing from the establishment of the Government Accountability and Transparency Board (GATB) in June, 2011.
The administration’s goal in creating COFAR is to establish a more streamlined and accountable structure to coordinate federal financial assistance.
“… the Council’s activities will include providing recommendations to OMB on policies and actions necessary to effectively deliver, oversee, and report on grants and cooperative agreements, as well as sharing with executive departments and agencies (agencies) best practices and innovative ideas for transforming the delivery of this assistance.”
Through standardization of business process, data standards, metrics, and information technology, COFAR is intended to foster more efficient and effective federal financial management. In its memorandum establishing COFAR, OMB said,
“The Council will also work with key stakeholders in coordinating the streamlining and simplification of the financial assistance process by eliminating unnecessary regulatory, reporting, and grant-agreement requirements and by increasing flexibilities for satisfying grant requirements.”
In short, COFAR is charged with doing what the GPC and GEB were previously charged with working toward. Grantor agencies are disinclined to change the way they have been managing grant and cooperative agreement programs – in some cases, for decades – which is necessary to achieve uniformity and consistency across agencies, as noted in a recent post by Jerry Ashworth in Thompson’s Funding Attractions blog.
The COFAR will be co-chaired by the OMB Controller and one of the nine senior policy officials from other Federal agencies. Eight agencies that provide the largest amounts of financial assistance – Departments of Agriculture, Education, Energy, Health and Human Services, Homeland Security, Housing and Urban Development, Labor, and Transportation – will constitute the standing membership with an additional member appointed for a two-year term to represent other federal agencies. The National Science Foundation will fill this position for the initial term and the initial co-chair will be the Chief Financial Officer of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Before COFAR even gets off the ground, concern has been expressed regarding its membership. In a letter dated November 17, 2011, leaders from all the major state and local government organizations criticized the decision to not include any stakeholders in the makeup of COFAR. Central to their thesis is that COFAR’s activities will include providing “recommendations to OMB on policies and actions necessary to effectively deliver, oversee and report on grants and best practices” as well as share “best practices and innovative ideas for transforming delivery” of federal assistance. These leaders note that 80% of federal aid flows through state and local governments, and argue that lack of their participation “undermines the important work of the council before it even commences.”
InfoEd Global and other system solution providers along with universities involved in the Federal Demonstration Project (FDP) Electronic Research Administration Committee have identified the need for an opportunity for input from the academic research community as well.
In its memorandum announcing creation of COFAR, OMB noted that the “Council will also work with key stakeholders in coordinating the streamlining and simplification of the financial assistance process by eliminating unnecessary regulatory, reporting, and grant-agreement requirements and by increasing flexibilities for satisfying grant requirements.” It remains to be seen how, and indeed whether, COFAR will reach out effectively to stakeholders including state and local governments, tribal governments, and the academic research community.