Policy K5
Policy Name: Federal Project
Incident Reporting
Responsibility for
Maintenance: Financial Services; Grants; Administration & Compliance
I. Policy
Statement
As a recipient of
federal grant awards, OCC is required to report and document allegations,
suspicions, and complaints involving fraud, misfeasance, nonfeasance, or
malfeasance, misapplication of funds, gross mismanagement and misconduct,
criminal activity, waste and program abuse impacting programs supported by a
federal award; follow procedures required by applicable federal agencies for
filing such a report; and inform employees, staff, and sub-recipients of their duty
to submit such reports immediately through the appropriate incident reporting
system.
Employees, staff and sub-recipients of federal awards
Employees, staff, and
sub-recipients must be made aware of their duty to report any suspected issue
involving fraud, misfeasance, nonfeasance, or malfeasance, misapplication of
funds, gross mismanagement and misconduct, criminal activity, waste and program
abuse impacting programs supported by a federal award, as well as the correct
procedure for filing such a report at least annually.
Vendors and subcontractors supported by federal awards
Vendors and
subcontractors made aware of their duty to report any suspected issue involving
fraud, misfeasance, nonfeasance, or malfeasance, misapplication of funds, gross
mismanagement and misconduct, criminal activity, waste and program abuse
impacting programs supported by a federal award, as well as the correct procedure
for filing such a report as part of their contractual obligations with the
College.
College Reporting Policy
While highly
encouraged, the College may not make internal reporting of such issues a
condition of reporting suspected issues to a federal agency. Note: The College is not expected to be able
to determine whether the allegations or suspicions are true or not before
reporting them to the appropriate OIG. There must not be any delay reporting
such allegations or suspicions while the College conducts its own
investigation. A report must be filed in response to suspicions of wrongdoing.
The responsibility is to report these events, and not determine whether they
are true or not.
II. Reason
for Policy
This policy complies
with the Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit
Requirements for Federal Awards (commonly called "Uniform Guidance") –
a "government-wide framework for grants management" – is an
authoritative set of rules and requirements for Federal awards that synthesizes
and supersedes guidance from earlier OMB circulars. A core tenant of Uniform Guidance is to guard
against the risk of waste, and misuse of Federal funds. The Incident Reporting
requirement ensures that employees, vendors, subcontractors and sub-recipients
of federal grants and awards are aware of their responsibility to be good
stewards of public funds.
III. Applicability
of the Policy
This policy applies
to projects, employees, vendors, and sub-recipients supported directly or
indirectly by federal funds. Federal
awards never lose their identity; no matter how many agencies, states, and
local programs federal awards pass through, the Uniform Guidance standard still
applies.
IV. Related Documents/Forms
- 2 CFR Part 200, the Uniform Administrative
Requirements; Cost Principles, & Audit Requirements for Federal Awards
(known as the “Uniform Guidance”)
- CFR 200 § 200.113 Mandatory
disclosures
- 2 CFR 2900 (DOL Exceptions)
- US Department of Labor,
Employment and Training Administration’s Training and Employment Guidance
Letter (TEGL) No. 02-12
- Incident Report (IR) (OIG
1-156): This is the primary form for reporting instances of fraud,
misapplication of funds, gross mismanagement, and any other incidents of known
or suspected criminal or other serious activities. The OIG 1-156 may also be
used to provide interim and final reports.
IV. Contacts
|
Office
Name
|
Title
or Position
|
Telephone
Number
|
Email/URL
|
|
Financial
Services
|
Senior
Vice President & Chief Financial Officer
|
(315)
498-2268
|
[email protected]
|
|
Institutional Planning, Assessment & Research
|
Associate
Vice President
|
(315)
498-2742
|
[email protected]
|
|
Administration & Compliance
|
Vice
President
|
(315)
498-2962
|
[email protected]
|
V. Definitions
|
Fraud, Misfeasance, Nonfeasance or
Malfeasance
|
Any
alleged deliberate action that may be in violation of Federal statutes and
regulations. This category includes, but is not limited to, indications of
bribery, forgery, extortion, embezzlement, theft of participant checks,
kickbacks from participants or contractors, intentional payments to a
contractor without the expectation of receiving services, payments to ghost
enrollees, misuse of appropriated funds, and misrepresenting information in
official reports, such as filing false claims, time and attendance reporting
or improper travel payments.
|
|
Gross mismanagement
|
Actions or situations arising out of
management ineptitude or oversight and leading to a major violation of the
legislative process, regulations, or contract/grant provisions. This includes
but is not limited to un-auditable records, unsupported costs, highly
inaccurate fiscal reports or program reports, payroll discrepancies, payroll
deductions not paid to the IRS, and lack of good internal control procedures.
|
|
Misapplication of Funds
|
Any deliberate use of funds, assets, or
property not authorized or provided for by legislation or regulations, grants
or contracts. This includes but is not limited to nepotism, political
patronage, use of participants for political activity, ineligible enrollees,
conflict of interest, failure to report income from federal funds, violation
of contract/grant procedures, and the use of federal funds for
other-than-specified purposes.
|
|
Waste and Program Abuse
|
While not a criminal act, these incidents
are to be reported in the same manner as the more obvious instances of
criminal conduct.
|
|
Employee or Participant Misconduct
|
Actions occurring during or outside work
hours that reflect negatively on the federal agency or its mission including,
but not limited to: conflict of interest or the appearance of conflict of
interest involving outside employment, business and professional activities;
the receipt or giving of gifts, fees, entertainment, and favors; misuse of
Federal property; and, misuse of official information and such other
activities as might adversely affect the confidence of the public in the
integrity of the government (See 29 CFR Part O; 5 CFR Parts 2635 and 5201) as
well as serious violations of Federal and state laws. Even though these
latter activities may not rise to the level of criminal acts, they are
nevertheless incidents that are reported in the same manner as the more
obvious instances of criminal conduct.
|
VI. Procedure
The process of
reporting differs across federal agencies and awards. Select the appropriate process below to
report allegations, suspicions, and complaints of waste and misuse of Federal
funds.
USDOL ETA Awards
- The Department of Labor's
Incident Reporting System uses the DOL Incident Report Form DL 1-156 which is
available online at the dol.gov website and in TEGL 2-12. This form and its
instructions can be found in TEGL 2-12. Send the DL 1-156 to the following address:
- Submit
copies to OIG and ETA. Documenting and reporting these incidents consists of
recording them on the form DL 1-156 and submitting them to OIG and ETA.
- If
imminent health or safety concerns or imminent loss of funds exceeding $50,000:
- When
the threat is immediately imminent or involves a substantial amount of funds,
you must report this to OIG even more quickly. Where imminent health or safety
concerns exist and/or imminent loss of funds exceeds $50,000, they must be
reported to the OIG and ETA immediately by telephone followed by a written
Incident Report (IR) no later than one working day.
- Recipients and sub-recipients
are also required to report fraud and other criminal acts to ETA or the
pass-through entity, as appropriate, in accordance with the new Uniform
Guidance requirement on mandatory disclosure at 200.113.
- The ETA OIG operates a
hotline phone number where people can report anything and everything that they
find to be suspicious. Use this number to report imminent threats. Those
numbers are:
- DOL
Hotline - Office of Inspector General 1-800-347-3756 or (202) 693-6999
- If mailing the report, send
the DL 1-156 to the following address: Complaints Analysis Office, DOL Office
of Inspector General, Room S5506, 200 Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC
20210 or to the corresponding Regional Inspector General for Investigations
with a copy simultaneously provided to ETA.
- Incidents can be reported
and channeled through a state or local system first, before the report is sent
to OIG, if there are procedures set up to do so, and if the incident does not
pose an immediate or substantial monetary threat. But, in all cases, DOL must
be notified at the same time.
VII. Responsibilities
Compliance, Monitoring & Review
- Administration and
Compliance, and Finance divisions are responsible for administration of this
policy and related procedures.
- Project directors for
federal awards shall submit updates to the procedure guide as needed to align
the procedure with federal project technical assistance requirements, and
project reporting requirements.
- Responsibilities for actions
under this procedure are detailed throughout this document.
- Staff must maintain all
records relevant to administering this policy and procedure in the master
compliance log and share drive, or a recognized College record keeping
system. The recorder should include the
date of training, and a list of attendees.
- Reporting: Failure to make
required disclosures can result in any of the remedies described in
§200.338. Remedies for noncompliance,
including suspension or debarment. (See also 2 CFR part 180 and 31 U.S.C.
3321).
Approved by the Board
of Trustees January 23, 2018