2.2 Acceptance of Award and Award Conditions
Award Notification and Acceptance Procedures
Your application has gone through the review process and you have just been approved for an award. The next step in this process is award notification. Here are the details:
- The Office of Justice Programs (OJP) and the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) send award notifications by email through the Grants Management System (GMS) to the individuals listed in the application as the point of contact and the authorizing official.
- GMS automatically issues the notifications at 9:00 p.m. eastern time on the award date.
- The email notification includes detailed instructions on how to access and view the award documents and how to accept the award in GMS.
- The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) sends award notifications by email to the law enforcement and government executives (and financial official if applicable) listed in the application.
- The email notification contains information on how to access and view the award on the COPS Agency Portal.
- The COPS Office provides detailed instructions for accepting the award in the COPS Grant and Award Owner???s Manuals available through the COPS Office website.
To accept an award from the COPS Office, you must log into the COPS Agency Portal, located on the ???Account Access??? tab on the COPS Office website at www.cops.usdoj.gov, to retrieve the award package. Follow the instructions for accepting and signing your award.
The award document serves as the official document binding the recipient and DOJ to the grant agreement. A sample award document is included in Appendix I. It includes the name of the recipient, project title, award period, budget period, type of Federal funds (awards and cooperative agreements), amount of Federal funds, award number, and special conditions that must be met during the award period.
Action Item
You have 45 days from the award date to accept the OJP or OVW award document or the award may be rescinded. The COPS Office awards have a 90-day acceptance time frame.
To accept an award from OJP or OVW, you must log into GMS and designate a Financial Point of Contact (FPOC). You can find instructions for designating a FPOC in the GMS User Guide.
Here are some important points about the FPOC:
- The FPOC must be the individual(s) the recipient has designated as responsible for the financial administration of the award.
- He or she may be the same as the Principal Point of Contact (PPOC). Alternatively, the FPOC may be one or more separate individuals designated by the recipient.
- The designation of the FPOC must be completed in GMS before the award acceptance documents can be printed.
Once the FPOC has been designated, recipients should:
- Print and read the award document carefully.
- Have the award document signed and dated by the authorized recipient official designated in the application to indicate full acceptance of all terms and conditions. The name of this person is preprinted on the award document. An electronic signature will not be accepted.
- The authorized recipient official should also initial the bottom right corner of each page of the special conditions to signify agreement.
To accept an award from the COPS Office, you must log into the Agency Portal, located on the Account Access tab on the COPS Office website, and follow the instructions for accepting and signing your award.
Financial Management Tip
- For OJP or OVW, if the name of the person accepting the award is not the name preprinted on the award document, then the recipient must submit a Grant Adjustment Notice (GAN) to explain the reason for the change. Submission of the GAN is done through the GMS. The award acceptance document will be rejected if it is signed by anyone other than the authorizing recipient official named on the award document unless a GAN has been approved.
- If the signature on the award document is not legible enough to tell that the signature is that of the authorized recipient official, it will delay final award document acceptance, and may even cause rejection of the award document.
- For the COPS Office, if the name of the person accepting the award is not the name preprinted on the award document, then the recipient will need to submit a Change of Information in the COPS Agency Portal and notify their program manager or grant program specialist, who will regenerate the award document.
Do not make any changes to the award document! Doing so will make it null and void.
To accept an OJP award, the signed award document and the special conditions should be submitted to the OCFO Control Desk using any of the following methods:
- Email a scanned copy to [email protected]
- Toll-free fax to 866-388-3055
- Local fax (Washington, DC) to 202-354-4081
- Alternate fax to 202-353-8475
To accept an OVW award, the signed award document and the special conditions should be submitted by using one of the following methods:
- Email a scanned copy to [email protected]
- Fax to 202-514-7045
To accept an award from the COPS Office, the signed award document and the special conditions must be signed electronically in the COPS Agency Portal.
Action Item
Select only one submission method to avoid duplicate submissions. The original signed award document should be retained by the award recipient in its official award file.
If you decide to not accept the award, please contact your program manager to discuss the reasons for this decision. No Federal funds will be disbursed to a recipient until DOJ has received the signed award document indicating acceptance of the award and all special conditions.
Financial Management Tip
You may direct questions concerning award notification and acceptance to the appropriate DOJ contact(s).
