Noncompliance

The Department of Commerce's grant management process is designed to provide grantees with the technical assistance and tools they need to succeed in managing an executed Department of Commerce grant.  The technical assistance is offered in a variety of formats (e.g., the Welcome Package, email notifications, and monitoring).  In addition, a noncompliance process is incorporated into the Department of Commerce's grant management approach and is designed to identify and address noncompliance issues early in the term of a grant.  This process can also assist grantees in their efforts to reestablish compliance.

A grantee is considered to be in noncompliant status when one of more of the following apply:

• Provisions of a grant agreement are not met
• Reporting requirements are not met
• Grant-required tasks/activities are not conducted according to the established requirements
• Audit requirements are not met
• Other identified delinquencies exist

Once in the noncompliant status, the grantee is subject to processes overseen by the Department of Commerce grant and program managers, the Office of Accountability, and the Office of General Counsel.  The noncompliance process provides assistance to the grantee to reestablish a status of compliance.  However, if a grantee’s actions do not reestablish a status of compliance, the agency may initiate the grant funds recovery process.  The grant recovery process typically involves actions by the Department of Commerce designed to recover funds awarded through the grant agreement.

A grantee remains in noncompliant status until delinquencies are resolved.