Adjustments to Awards
Grant Adjustment Notice
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Budget Modifications
Changes in the Recipient’s Authorized Signing Official and/or Official’s Contact Information
Changes in the Recipient’s Contact Name or Contact Information
Change in Grantee Name
Changes to the Scope of the Award
Change in Project Period
Changes in Indirect Costs
Changes to the Organization
Data Universal Numbering System, or DUNS, Changes
Sole Source Approval
A Grant Adjustment Notice (GAN) is a request to make a programmatic, administrative, or financial change to a grant GANs may be submitted by the recipient, grant manager, or automatically generated by the Grant Management System (GMS). All GANs must be requested electronically through the GAN module in the Grants Management System (GMS).
All GANs are reviewed by the Office of Justice Programs (OJP) grant manager and/or the Grants Financial Management Division. Upon submission of a GAN, an email is automatically sent to the OJP grant manager as notification.
Once a decision has been made on the proposed adjustment, you will receive an email notification that will become a permanent part of the award file, and the record will be updated as appropriate.
Financial Management Tip
After submission of a GAN, you should keep an eye out for returned GANs in case additional information or changes are required. If you do not respond in a timely manner, this can hold up the processing of the GAN. An untimely response may result in the request being denied, and the grantee having to start over. This can be a problem, especially if you are trying to extend the grant period and the project end date is near.
You are limited to specific grant award adjustment(s). In the sections that follow, we describe situations in which you may—or must—initiate a GAN.
Budget Modifications
You may initiate a GAN for a budget modification if a request to modify an approved budget to reallocate funds among the budget categories. This GAN can also be used to de-obligate a portion of the award amount; however, the original award amount may not be increased by this procedure.
You must initiate a GAN for budget modification if:
- The proposed cumulative change is greater than 10 percent of the total award amount. The 10% rule does not apply to an award of less than $100,000.
- The budget modification changes the scope of the project. Examples include altering the purpose of the project, authorizing use of a subcontractor or other organization that was not identified in the original approved budget, or contracting for or transferring of award-supported efforts.
- A budget adjustment affects a cost category that was not included in the original budget. For example, if the direct cost category “Travel” did not exist in the original budget, the adjustment to transfer funds from Equipment to Travel requires a GAN.
Financial Management Tip
For recordkeeping purposes and audit documentation, it is advised to submit a GAN even if the proposed budget modification is less than 10 percent of the total award amount. This also provides the Program Grant Manager with notification.
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Changes in the Recipient’s Authorized Signing Official and/or Official’s Contact Information
You must initiate a GAN if you want to make changes to the person who is responsible for authorizing and signing official documents (such as award documents, Progress Reports, Standard 424 documents, etc.). The request must include the name, address, phone number, e-mail address, fax number, and title of the new Authorized Signing Official.
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Changes in the Recipient’s Contact Name or Contact Information
You may initiate a GAN request to change the name and contact information of the recipient or key recipient staff due to a permanent withdrawal, change in staff, or in a case of temporary absence.
Financial Management Tip
The contact name used on the GAN must exactly match the name in the GMS.
Action Item
Many awards require prior approval for changes in key staff.
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Change in Grantee Name
You may initiate a request to change the name of a recipient organization on record with OJP.
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Changes to the Scope of the Award
You are not required to initiate a GAN if you make minor changes in methodology, approach, or other aspects of the award to expedite achievement of the award’s objectives.
However, you must initiate a GAN for changes in scope, duration, activities, or other significant areas.?? These changes include but are not limited to:
- Altering programmatic activities
- Changing the purpose of the project
- Changing the project site
- Experiencing or making changes to the organization or staff with primary responsibility for implementation of the award, contracting out, subawarding (if authorized by law), or otherwise obtaining the services of a third party to perform activities which are central to the purpose of the award
- Changes in scope that affect the budget
Financial Management Tip
If you are not sure whether your change would be considered minor or would require a GAN, contact your program manager.
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Change in Project Period
A request to change the start date may be submitted by the recipient or the grant manager. There is no systematic time limit on when a Start Date GAN can be submitted. These requests are rarely approved except for programs that are, by statute, allowed to change the start date based on the drawdown date. In general, in order for a Start Date GAN to be approved, you must not have drawn down funds.
The request to change the end date may be submitted by the recipient within 30 calendar days before the project period end date or at any time by the grant manager. Extensions for no more than 12 months past the original end date are typically granted. A request to extend the project period for more than 12 months requires justification of extraordinary circumstances.
Some awards have statutory maximum grant periods beyond which they cannot be extended.
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Changes in Indirect Costs
- Transferring funds into or out of the indirect cost category is not allowable without prior approval from the awarding agency. A budget modification is required.
- Moving monies in any budget category with a zero dollar amount is not allowable without prior approval from the awarding agency. A budget modification is required.
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Changes to the Organization
You may initiate a GAN to request a change to the organization’s mailing address or to the organization’s name.
You may not initiate a GAN to request a change to the vendor number and the type of organization (e.g., profit vs. nonprofit).
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Data Universal Numbering System, or DUNS, Changes
You may initiate a GAN to request a change to your organization’s DUNS number.
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Sole Source Approval
You may initiate a GAN to request to enter into a subcontract relationship with a vendor under a grant where the subcontracted cost exceeds $100,000. Please see the Chapter 13: Procurement Procurement Under Awards of Federal Assistance for more information.
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