2 Ways to Reduce Agency Inefficiency in the Grants Management Process

As the pandemic fades into our rearview mirror and we enter what could be a period of austerity, regulators will push agencies even harder on the need for grants management transparency and fiscal stewardship. We can see this focus through the many new regulatory updates, laws, and focused management modernization efforts. With limited resources and an ill-defined grants competency model, reducing the administrative burden while driving efficiency will prove challenging. As US government grant obligations reached an astounding $2+ trillion as of June 20221 (up from $764 billion in FY 2019), agencies must begin to re-think their grants management processes.

The recent Annual Grants Management Survey conducted by the National Grants Management Association2 underscores the need for respondents to spend time evaluating grant program outcomes and impact – respondents indicated only 7% of their time was spent doing this critical work.

Here we discuss how agencies can shift the paradigm of grants management from monitoring to driving impact through additional oversight.

1. Organizational transparency and more specific guidance can reduce administrative burden

2. Data standardization and technology improvements can drive grants management efficiency

Where Can Agencies Start?

Changes of this significance can be overwhelming to implement. A key is to start with quick wins and achievable tasks, such as:

1. Executing a pilot program for one program or cohort of a program to understand what works and where additional changes are needed before executing across the organization.
2. Establishing meaningful and actionable performance objectives that drive decisions and key investments.
3. Considering opportunities with other grant-making agencies to leverage best practices, data, and technology to generate cost savings.

How Guidehouse Can Help

With more than 10,000 professionals working in over 50 locations globally, Guidehouse continues our long tradition of delivering innovative management, technology, and risk consulting to our clients. Some of our service highlights include:

• Guidehouse provides strategy and project management support to the Grants Management Quality Service Management Office within HHS, establishing a government-wide marketplace of modern, high-quality, shared solutions that align to mission and business needs, streamline the environment to increase effectiveness and efficiency, and improve the user experience and reduce administrative burden for both federal awarding agencies and grant applicant/recipient partners.
• Guidehouse supports a large southeastern state to manage nearly $1.9 billion in Coronavirus Relief funding by establishing a technology-enabled grants platform and accompanying processes, procedures, and policies for effective funds disbursements to state grants recipients.
• Guidehouse supports the US Department of Justice’s Office on Violence against Women to track open Office of the Inspector General (OIG) audits of Grant Close-outs and Department Sponsored Conferences. Guidehouse serves in the role of addressing concerns brought about from the OIG audit. Guidehouse collaborates with the grantees, technical assistance providers, and the auditor agencies to resolve the audit findings. 

This article is featured in the AGA October 2021 - The Washington Connection.

Special thanks to Vasanth Ganesan for contributing to this article.