20 C.F.R. Subpart D—Grant Application, Eligibility, and Award Requirements
Title 20 - Employees' Benefits
(a) National grants. Entities eligible to apply for national grants include nonprofit organizations, Federal public agencies, and Tribal organizations. These entities must be capable of administering a multi-State program. State and local agencies may not apply for these funds. (b) National grants in a State. Section 514(e)(3) of the OAA permits nonprofit organizations, public agencies, and States to receive SCSEP funds when a national grantee in a State fails to meet its performance measures in the second and third year of failure. The poor performing grantee that had its funds competed is not eligible to compete for the same funds. (c) State grants. Section 506(e) of the OAA requires the Department to enter into agreements with each State to provide SCSEP services. States may use individual State agencies, political subdivisions of a State, a combination of such political subdivisions, or a national grantee operating in the State to administer SCSEP funds. If the State's funds are competed under section 514(f) of the OAA, other agencies within the State, political subdivisions of a State, a combination of political subdivisions of a State, and national grantees operating in the State are eligible to apply for funds. Other States may not apply for this funding. (a) General. An eligible entity must follow the application guidelines issued by the Department. The Department will issue application guidelines announcing the availability of State and national SCSEP funds whether they are awarded on a competitive or noncompetitive basis. The guidelines will contain application due dates, application instructions, and other necessary information. All entities must submit applications in accordance with the Department's instructions. (b) National grant applicants. All applicants for SCSEP national grant funds, except organizations proposing to serve older American Indians, must submit their applications to the Governor of each State in which projects are proposed before submitting the application to the Department. (OAA sec. 503(a)(5)). (c) State applicants. A State that submits a Unified Plan under WIA section 501 may include the State's SCSEP community service project grant application in its Unified Plan. Any State that submits an SCSEP grant application as part of its WIA Unified Plan must address all of the application requirements as published in the Department's instructions. State Plan applications and modifications are addressed in §§641.340 and 641.345. The Department will select grantees from among applicants that are able to meet the eligibility and responsibility review criteria at section 514 of the OAA. (Section 641.430 contains the eligibility criteria and §§641.440 and 641.450 contain the responsibility criteria.) If there is a full and open competition, the Department also will take the rating criteria described in the Solicitation for Grant Application or other instrument into consideration, including the applicant's/grantee's past performance in any prior Federal grants or contracts for the past 3 years. To be eligible to receive SCSEP funds, each applicant must be able to demonstrate: (a) An ability to administer a program that serves the greatest number of eligible participants, giving particular consideration to individuals with greatest economic need, greatest social need, poor employment history or prospects, and over the age of 60; (b) An ability to administer a program that provides employment for eligible individuals in communities in which they reside, or in nearby communities, that will contribute to the general welfare of the community; (c) An ability to administer a program that moves eligible participants into unsubsidized employment; (d) An ability to move participants with multiple barriers to employment into unsubsidized employment; (e) An ability to coordinate with other organizations at the State and local levels, including the One-Stop Delivery System; (f) An ability to properly manage the program, including its plan for fiscal management of the SCSEP program; (g) An ability to minimize program disruption for current participants if there is a change in project sponsor and/or location, and its plan for minimizing disruptions; and (h) Any additional criteria that the Secretary of Labor deems appropriate in order to minimize disruptions for current participants. Each applicant must meet each of the listed responsibility “tests” by not having committed any of the acts of misfeasance or malfeasance described in §641.440(a)–(n) of this section. (a) The Department has been unable to recover a debt from the applicant, whether incurred by the applicant or by one of its subgrantees or subcontractors, or the applicant has failed to comply with a debt repayment plan to which it agreed. In this context, a debt is established by final agency action, followed by three demand letters to the applicant, without payment in full by the applicant. (b) Established fraud or criminal activity of a significant nature within the applicant's organization. (c) Serious administrative deficiencies identified by the Department, such as failure to maintain a financial management system as required by Federal regulations. (d) Willful obstruction of the auditing or monitoring process. (e) Failure to provide services to applicants as agreed to in a current or recent grant or to meet applicable performance measures. (f) Failure to correct deficiencies brought to the grantee's attention in writing as a result of monitoring activities, reviews, assessments, or other activities. (g) Failure to return a grant closeout package or outstanding advances within 90 days after the grant expiration date or receipt of closeout package, whichever is later, unless an extension has been requested and granted. (h) Failure to submit required reports. (i) Failure to properly report and dispose of Government property as instructed by the Department. (j) Failure to have maintained effective cash management or cost controls resulting in excess cash on hand. (k) Failure to ensure that a subgrantee complies with applicable audit requirements, including OMB Circular A–133 audit requirements specified at 20 CFR 667.200(b) and §641.821. (l) Failure to audit a subgrantee within the period required under §641.821. (m) Final disallowed costs in excess of five percent of the grant or contract award if, in the judgment of the Grant Officer, the disallowances are egregious findings. (n) Failure to establish a mechanism to resolve a subgrantee's audit in a timely fashion. (a) Yes, an applicant may be disqualified if either of the first two responsibility tests listed in §641.440 is not met. (b) The remainder of the responsibility tests listed in §641.440 require a substantial or persistent failure (for 2 or more consecutive years). (c) The second responsibility test addresses “fraud or criminal activity of a significant nature.” The existence of significant fraud or criminal activity will be determined by the Department and typically will include willful or grossly negligent disregard for the use, handling, or other fiduciary duties of Federal funding where the grantee has no effective systems, checks, or safeguards to detect or prevent fraud or criminal activity. Additionally, significant fraud or criminal activity will typically include coordinated patterns or behaviors that pervade a grantee's administration or are focused at the higher levels of a grantee's management or authority. To be consistent with the OAA section 514(d)(4)(B), this determination will be made on a case-by-case basis regardless of what party identifies the alleged fraud or criminal activity. The Department will conduct a review of available records to assess each applicant's overall fiscal and administrative ability to manage Federal funds. The Department's responsibility review may consider any available information, including the organization's history with regard to the management of other grants awarded by the Department or by other Federal agencies. (OAA sec. 514(d)(1) and (d)(2)). (a) The Department may question any proposed project component of an application if it believes that the component will not serve the purposes of the SCSEP program. The Department may reject the application if the applicant does not submit or negotiate an acceptable alternative. (b) The Department may reject any application that the Grant Officer determines unacceptable based on the content of the application, rating score, past performance, fiscal management, or any other factor the Grant Officer believes serves the best interest of the program, including the application's comparative rating in a competition. (a) Any entity whose application is rejected in whole or in part will be provided a timely notice as well as an explanation, or debriefing, of the Department's basis for its rejection. Notifications will include an explanation of the Department's decision and suggestions as to how to improve the applicant's position for future competitions. (b) Incumbent grantees will not have an opportunity to cure in an open competition because that will create an inequity in favor of incumbents which already have opportunities to correct deficiencies through technical assistance, provided by the Department, under OAA sec. 514(e)(2)(A). (c) If the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) rules that the organization should have been selected, in whole or in part, and the organization continues to meet the requirements of this part, the matter must be remanded to the Grant Officer. The Grant Officer must, within 10 working days, determine whether the slots which are the subject of the ALJ's decision will be awarded, in whole or in part, to the organization and the timing of the award. In making this determination, the Grant Officer must take into account disruption to participants, disruption to grantees and the operational needs of the SCSEP. The Grant Officer must return the decision to the ALJ for review. In the event that the Grant Officer determines that it is not feasible, the successful appellant will be awarded its bid preparation costs or a pro rata share of those costs if Grant Officer's finding applies to only a portion of the funds that would be awarded to the successful appellant. An applicant so selected is not entitled to the full grant amount but will only receive the funds remaining in the grant that have not been expended by the current grantee through its operation of the grant and its subsequent closeout. The available remedy in an SCSEP non-selection appeal is the right to be selected in the future as an SCSEP grantee for the remainder of the current grant cycle. Neither retroactive nor immediately effective selection status may be awarded as relief in a non-selection appeal under this section and §641.900. Any organization selected and/or funded as an SCSEP grantee is subject to having its slots reduced or to being removed as an SCSEP grantee of an ALJ decision so orders. The Grant Officer provides instructions on transition and closeout to both the newly designated grantee and to the grantee whose slots are affected or which is being removed. All parties must agree to the provisions of this paragraph as a condition of being an SCSEP grantee. (a) Yes, each Governor will have a reasonable opportunity to make comments on any application to operate a SCSEP project located in the Governor's State before the Department makes a final decision on a grant award. The Governor's comments should be directed to the Department and may include the anticipated effect of the proposal on the overall distribution of program positions within the State; recommendations for redistribution of positions to underserved areas as vacancies occur in previously encumbered positions in other areas; and recommendations for distributing any new positions that may become available as a result of an increase in funding for the State. The Governor's recommendations should be consistent with the State Plan. (b) Under noncompetitive conditions, the Governor may make the authorized recommendations on all applications. However, under competitive conditions, the Governor has the option of making the authorized recommendations on all applications or only on those applications proposed for award following the rating process. It is incumbent on each Governor to inform the Department of his or her intent to review the applications before or after the rating process. (a) The Department must hold a competition for SCSEP funds when a grantee (national grantee, national grantee in a State, or State grantee) fails to meet its performance measures; the eligibility requirements; or the responsibility tests established by section 514 of the OAA. (b) The Department may hold a full and open competition before the beginning of a new grant period, or if additional grantees are funded. The details of the competition will be provided in a Solicitation for Grant Applications published in the [69 FR 19051, Apr. 9, 2004, as amended at 71 FR 35516, June 21, 2006]
Title 20: Employees' Benefits
PART 641—PROVISIONS GOVERNING THE SENIOR COMMUNITY SERVICE EMPLOYMENT PROGRAM
Subpart D—Grant Application, Eligibility, and Award Requirements
§ 641.400 What entities are eligible to apply to the Department for funds to administer SCSEP community service projects?
§ 641.410 How does an eligible entity apply?
§ 641.420 What factors will the Department consider in selecting grantees?
§ 641.430 What are the eligibility criteria that each applicant must meet?
§ 641.440 What are the responsibility conditions that an applicant must meet?
§ 641.450 Are there responsibility conditions that alone will disqualify an applicant?
§ 641.460 How will the Department examine the responsibility of eligible entities?
§ 641.465 Under what circumstances may the Department reject an application?
§ 641.470 What happens if an applicant's application is rejected?
§ 641.480 May the Governor make recommendations to the Department on grant applications?
§ 641.490 When may SCSEP grants be awarded competitively?
