OMB has updated reporting guidance under the Recovery Act to incorporate lessons learned from the first reporting period ending September 30, and to address GAO recommendations on how to improve the way job-creation data is reported.
Recovery Act recipients have begun submitting reports on the use of Recovery Act funding through a nationwide data collection process and have reported estimates on the number of jobs created and retained.
The memo provides guidance – for agencies and recipients – intended to improve the quality of data reported and outlines steps agencies must take to identify non-reporting recipients and take actions to bring them into compliance with the Act.
The memo – M-10-08 – provides agencies with a standard methodology for implementing reviews of the quality of data submitted by recipients, provides guidance to agencies on the format and dates to provide OMB with the list of awards subject to recipient reporting, and the associated list of specific recipients who failed to submit required reports.
According to the memo, recipients will now report job estimates on a quarterly, rather than cumulative, basis, and no longer be required to sum various data on hours worked across multiple quarters of data when calculating job estimates.
OMB said they also will no longer be required to make a subjective judgment on whether jobs were created or retained as a result of the Recovery Ac, and instead, recipients will more easily and objectively report on jobs funded with Recovery Act dollars.
