Are subrecipients of ARP funds required to submit an official attestation form prior to award?

There is no official attestation form that subrecipients are required to complete before receiving an award of funds under the American Rescue Plan (“ARP”). However, to receive a subaward, subrecipients are required to obtain a unique entity identifier by registering with the System for Award Management (“SAM.gov”).[1] As part of the registration process, subrecipients are obligated to disclose details about their organization. Additionally, municipalities can require subrecipients to provide pre-award information to aid in the determination of a subrecipient’s ability to successfully carry out the subaward.

SAM.gov Registration

The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s (“Treasury”) Compliance and Reporting Guidance makes clear that it is the responsibility of the recipient of ARP funds to ensure that subrecipients are compliant with registering and maintaining an updated profile on SAM.gov.[2] As part of the registration process, subrecipients are required to disclose information about their organization, including but not limited to the following:

• Legal business name, address, date of incorporation, state of incorporation, taxpayer identification number, IRS consent form (taxpayer name and address), organizational factors (e.g., S corporation, LLC, etc.), entity structure (e.g., corporate entity, tax exempt, sole proprietorship, etc.), website, bank account information (account type, routing number, account number), size of the organization, name and title of person(s) responsible for determining prices offered in bids and proposals, and other company information.
• Additionally, as part of the SAM.gov registration, organizations must answer numerous questions about the following, if applicable:
  • criminal and civil cases resulting in judgments against the organization and principals;
  • delinquent federal taxes;
  • details about current federal contracts;
  • recent terminations for cause;
  • small disadvantaged business status; and,
  • compliance with the submission of Equal Employment Opportunity compliance reports.[3]

To view a complete list of the information that organizations are required to provide as part of their SAM.gov registration and all of the questions that organizations are required to answer, review the SAM.gov Entity Registration Checklist.[4] Not all registration information is publicly available. To view publicly available information, organizations must first create a SAM.gov account and then enter the subject of their query into the search tool.

Subrecipient Risk Assessments

The Uniform Guidance requires recipients to evaluate each subrecipient’s risk of noncompliance with federal statutes, regulations, and the terms and conditions of the subaward for purposes of determining the appropriate subrecipient monitoring.[5] The Uniform Guidance does not require any particular type or extent of risk assessment, which is left to the judgement of the pass-through entity. However, municipalities can use the required evaluation process as an opportunity to create a pre-award template that will solicit information about an organization’s operations and financial status helpful in assessing the risk of each subrecipient failing to comply with federal requirements. As an example, the United States Department of Justice (“DOJ”) Office of Justice Programs (“OJP”) created a questionnaire that can be used as a guide to obtain critical information from subrecipients in order to complete a pre-award risk assessment.[6] Specifically, the OJP prepared pre-award questions that seek to elicit information about accounting practices, written policies and procedures, internal controls, record retention policy, grant management expertise, and other organizational information.

Although there is no official attestation form that subrecipients must complete to receive ARP funds, recipients are not prohibited from creating their own risk assessment process that includes an attestation. Creating such a process could assist a municipality in its required pre-award risk assessment.