Congratulations! You have been selected to receive a grant award. The following steps must be completed prior to receiving their grant award.
- Complete the Internal Controls Questionnaire (ICQ): All Grantees are required to complete the ICQ once annually. The purpose of the risk assessment is to identify an organization's potential weaknesses and to determine what additional technical assistance, if any a grantee may need to assist in building their capacity to be compliant with grant requirements. The following resources provides instructions on how to complete the Internal Controls Questionnaire.
Once the ICQ is complete, the grantee will receive a score and specific grant agreement conditions based on the risk profile/score. The ICQ assesses the fiscal, administrative, and programmatic risk of an organization. The ICQ ask the grantee to provide responses regarding the organizations internal processes which include but not limited to its financial and programmatic reporting and accounting policies. The assessment is completed by the organization annually; only one ICQ is required per agency, regardless of the number of grant applications submitted.
Based on the responses provided in the ICQ and the grantees score, a corrective action plan may need to be developed. The goal of the corrective action plan is for the state agency and grantee to work together to identify needed supports and technical assistance so the grantee may better meet all requirements of the grant agreement.
Please Note: Due to the technical nature of the questions found in the assessment, it is recommended that the ICQ be completed by someone with financial or accounting experience in partnership with program staff at your organization.
- Receive, Review and Return the Notice of State Award (NOSA)
- Receive the Notice of State Award (NOSA) from the Grant Accountability Transparency Act (GATA) system. The NOSA will come to the potential grantee through the GATA portal. It is important that the grantee maintain the correct contact information in GATA's?portal to be certain that they receive their NOSA. The NOSA may also come as an automated email which sometimes ends up in "junk email" so please check periodically those email inboxes.
- Review the NOSA for any changes. The NOSA will make the formal offer of the grant to the grantee. It may exactly mirror what the grantee proposed in their application, or it may have different or additional requirements or different funding amounts. If medium or high risk is indicated through the pre-award ICQ risk assessment process, specific conditions will be added to the NOSA and the Uniform Grant Agreement. Grantees should work with their IDHS division's program staff and the IDHS division's fiscal staff to understand the changes.
- Submit the approved NOSA through the grantee portal. Please Note: The approved NOSA does not constitute an?IDHS Grant award (contract).?That formal process will begin after the approved NOSA has been returned. The applicant has the option to electronically accept or reject the NOSA. After reviewing the NOSA, select the appropriate response (accept or reject) in the drop-down menu and press the submit button on the NOSA page. Do not submit a hard copy to the program area unless specifically requested.
- Revise Budget in CSA as requested. The initial budget submitted at the time of application may not be approved due to unallowable costs, errors in budget or a difference between requested grant award amount and approved final grant award amount. CSA will generate a notice to the organization point of contact if the proposed budget is rejected. The budget in CSA must be approved by IDHS before a grant award can be executed.
- Read agreement and return signature page. Once the NOSA is accepted and budget is approved in CSA, a grant award will be developed, and the applicant must take the following steps:
- An email from the CSA system will be sent to the main point of contact for the organization notifying the grantee that the Uniform Grant Agreement UGA) is ready for review and signature.
- Grantee should read the UGA to become familiar with the contractual obligations of the grantee and grantor.
- Upon completion of review, download the signature page (page 2 of the document), sign, scan and return to DHS.DHSOCA@illinois.gov with a copy to the program office associated with the grant award.
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