Also passed by the Senate was S-1115, to require agencies to close out within 90 calendar days expired grant accounts with zero dollar balances and undisbursed funding remaining–accounts that sponsors, citing a GAO report, say cost millions of dollars each year.
The GAO found that users of the payment management system were charged a total of roughly $173,000 per month to maintain the more than 28,000 expired grant accounts with zero dollar balances listed on the yearend closeout report.
The measure would require agencies to report on remaining expired grants; they then would then have one year to confirm that they have closed out all of them. Additionally, the IG of any agency receiving over $500 million in annual grant funding would determine if an audit or review of the agency’s grant closeout process is needed.
