vided that the information to be submitted is not changed in substance.

(2) Forecasts of Federal cash requirements. Forecasts of Federal cash requirements may be required in the "Remarks" section of the report.

(3) Cash in hands of subgrantees. When considered necessary and feasible by the Federal agency, grantees may be required to report the amount of cash advances in excess of three days needs in the hands of their subgrantees or contractors and to provide short narrative explanations of actions taken by the grantee to reduce the excess bal

ances.

(4) Frequency and due date. Grantees must submit the report no later than 15 working days following the end of each quarter. However, where an advance either by letter of credit or electronic transfer of funds is authorized at an annualized rate of one million dollars or more, the Federal agency may require the report to be submitted within 15 working days following the end of each month.

(d) Request for advance or reimbursement (1) Advance payments. Requests for Treasury check advance payments will be submitted on Standard Form 270, Request for Advance or Reimbursement. (This form will not be used for drawdowns under a letter of credit, electronic funds transfer or when Treasury check advance payments are made to the grantee automatically on a predetermined basis.)

(2) Reimbursements. Requests for reimbursement under nonconstruction grants will also be submitted on Standard Form 270. (For reimbursement requests under construction grants, see paragraph (e)(1) of this section.)

(3) The frequency for submitting payment requests is treated in §18.41(b)(3).

(e) Outlay report and request for reimbursement for construction programs. (1) Grants that support construction activities paid by reimbursement method. (i) Requests for reimbursement under construction grants will be submitted on Standard Form 271, Outlay Report and Request for Reimbursement for Construction Programs. Federal agencies may, however, prescribe the Request for Advance or Reimbursement form, specified in §18.41(d), instead of this form.

(ii) The frequency for submitting reimbursement requests is treated in § 18.41(b)(3).

(2) Grants that support construction activities paid by letter of credit, electronic funds transfer or Treasury check advance. (i) When a construction grant is paid by letter of credit, electronic funds transfer or Treasury check advances, the grantee will report its outlays to the Federal agency using Standard Form 271, Outlay Report and Request for Reimbursement for Construction Programs. The Federal agency will provide any necessary special instruction. However, frequency and due date shall be governed by § 18.41(b) (3) and (4).

(ii) When a construction grant is paid by Treasury check advances based on periodic requests from the grantee, the advances will be requested on the form specified in § 18.41(d).

(iii) The Federal agency may substitute the Financial Status Report specified in § 18.41(b) for the Outlay Report and Request for Reimbursement for Construction Programs.

(3) Accounting basis. The accounting basis for the Outlay Report and Request for Reimbursement for Construction Programs shall be governed by § 18.41(b)(2).

(f) Notwithstanding the provisions of paragraphs (a)(1) of this section, recipients of FHWA and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) grants shall use FHWA, NHTSA or State financial reports.

[53 FR 8086 and 8087, Mar. 11, 1988, as amended at 53 FR 8087, Mar. 11, 1988]

§ 18.42 Retention and access requirements for records.

(a) Applicability. (1) This section applies to all financial and programmatic records, supporting documents, statistical records, and other records of grantees or subgrantees which are:

(i) Required to be maintained by the terms of this part, program regulations or the grant agreement, or

(ii) Otherwise reasonably considered as pertinent to program regulations or the grant agreement.

(2) This section does not apply to records maintained by contractors or subcontractors. For a requirement to place a provision concerning records in

certain kinds of contracts, see §18.36(1)(10).

(b) Length of retention period. (1) Except as otherwise provided, records must be retained for three years from the starting date specified in paragraph (c) of this section.

(2) If any litigation, claim, negotiation, audit or other action involving the records has been started before the expiration of the 3-year period, the records must be retained until completion of the action and resolution of all issues which arise from it, or until the end of the regular 3-year period, whichever is later.

(3) To avoid duplicate recordkeeping, awarding agencies may make special arrangements with grantees and subgrantees to retain any records which are continuously needed for joint use. The awarding agency will request transfer of records to its custody when it determines that the records possess long-term retention value. When the records are transferred to or maintained by the Federal agency, the 3-year retention requirement is not applicable to the grantee or subgrantee.

(c) Starting date of retention period—(1) General. When grant support is continued or renewed at annual or other intervals, the retention period for the records of each funding period starts on the day the grantee or subgrantee submits to the awarding agency its single or last expenditure report for that period. However, if grant support is continued or renewed quarterly, the retention period for each year's records starts on the day the grantee submits its expenditure report for the last quarter of the Federal fiscal year. In all other cases, the retention period starts on the day the grantee submits its final expenditure report. If an expenditure report has been waived, the retention period starts on the day the report would have been due.

(2) Real property and equipment records. The retention period for real property and equipment records starts from the date of the disposition or replacement or transfer at the direction of the awarding agency.

(3) Records for income transactions after grant or subgrant support. In some cases grantees must report income after the period of grant support.

Where there is such a requirement, the retention period for the records pertaining to the earning of the income starts from the end of the grantee's fiscal year in which the income is earned.

(4) Indirect cost rate proposals, cost allocations plans, etc. This paragraph applies to the following types of documents, and their supporting records: indirect cost rate computations or proposals, cost allocation plans, and any similar accounting computations of the rate at which a particular group of costs is chargeable (such as computer usage chargeback rates or composite fringe benefit rates).

(i) If submitted for negotiation. If the proposal, plan, or other computation is required to be submitted to the Federal Government (or to the grantee) to form the basis for negotiation of the rate, then the 3-year retention period for its supporting records starts from the date of such submission.

(ii) If not submitted for negotiation. If the proposal, plan, or other computation is not required to be submitted to the Federal Government (or to the grantee) for negotiation purposes, then the 3-year retention period for the proposal plan, or computation and its supporting records starts from theend of the fiscal year (or other accounting period) covered by the proposal, plan, or other computation.

(d) Substitution of microfilm. Copies made by microfilming, photocopying, or similar methods may be substituted for the original records.

(e) Access to records (1) Records of grantees and subgrantees. The awarding agency and the Comptroller General of the United States, or any of their authorized representatives, shall have the right of access to any pertinent books, documents, papers, or other records of grantees and subgrantees which are pertinent to the grant, in order to make audits, examinations, excerpts, and transcripts.

(2) Expiration of right of access. The right of access in this section must not be limited to the required retention period but shall last as long as the records are retained.

(f) Restrictions on public access. The Federal Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552) does not apply to records unless required by Federal, State, or

local law, grantees and subgrantees are not required to permit public access to their records.

§ 18.43 Enforcement.

(a) Remedies for noncompliance. If a grantee or subgrantee materially fails to comply with any term of an award, whether stated in a Federal statute or regulation, an assurance, in a State plan or application, a notice of award, or elsewhere, the awarding agency may take one or more of the following actions, as appropriate in the circumstances:

(1) Temporarily withhold cash payments pending correction of the deficiency by the grantee or subgrantee or more severe enforcement action by the awarding agency,

(2) Disallow (that is, deny both use of funds and matching credit for) all or part of the cost of the activity or action not in compliance,

(3) Wholly or partly suspend or terminate the current award for the grantee's or subgrantee's program,

(4) Withhold further awards for the program, or

(5) Take other remedies that may be legally available.

(b) Hearings, appeals. In taking an enforcement action, the awarding agency will provide the grantee or subgrantee an opportunity for such hearing, appeal, or other administrative proceeding to which the grantee or subgrantee is entitled under any statute or regulation applicable to the action involved.

(c) Effects of suspension and termination. Costs of grantee or subgrantee resulting from obligations incurred by the grantee or subgrantee during a suspension or after termination of an award are not allowable unless the awarding agency expressly authorizes them in the notice of suspension or termination or subsequently. Other grantee or subgrantee costs during suspension or after termination which are necessary and not reasonably avoidable are allowable if:

(1) The costs result from obligations which were properly incurred by the grantee or subgrantee before the effective date of suspension or termination, are not in anticipation of it, and, in the of a termination, are noncancellable, and,

case

(2) The costs would be allowable if the award were not suspended or expired normally at the end of the funding period in which the termination takes effect.

(d) Relationship to debarment and suspension. The enforcement remedies identified in this section, including suspension and termination, do not preclude grantee or subgrantee from being subject to "Debarment and Suspension" under E.O. 12549 (see § 18.35).

§ 18.44 Termination for convenience.

Except as provided in §18.43 awards may be terminated in whole or in part only as follows:

(a) By the awarding agency with the consent of the grantee or subgrantee in which case the two parties shall agree upon the termination conditions, including the effective date and in the case of partial termination, the portion to be terminated, or

(b) By the grantee or subgrantee upon written notification to the awarding agency, setting forth the reasons for such termination, the effective date, and in the case of partial termination, the portion to be terminated. However, if, in the case of a partial termination, the awarding agency determines that the remaining portion of the award will not accomplish the purposes for which the award was made, the awarding agency may terminate the award in its entirety under either §18.43 or paragraph (a) of this section.

(a) General. The Federal agency will close out the award when it determines that all applicable administrative actions and all required work of the grant has been completed.

(b) Reports. Within 90 days after the expiration or termination of the grant, the grantee must submit all financial, performance, and other reports required as a condition of the grant. Upon request by the grantee, Federal agencies may extend this timeframe. These may include but are not limited to:

(1) Final performance or progress report.

(2) Financial Status Report (SF 269) or Outlay Report and Request for Reimbursement for Construction Programs (SF-271) (as applicable).

(3) Final request for payment (SF-270) (if applicable).

(4) Invention disclosure (if applicable). (5) Federally-owned property report: In accordance with §18.32(f), a grantee must submit an inventory of all federally owned property (as distinct from property acquired with grant funds) for which it is accountable and request disposition instructions from the Federal agency of property no longer needed.

(c) Cost adjustment. The Federal agency will, within 90 days after receipt of reports in paragraph (b) of this section, make upward or downward adjustments to the allowable costs.

(d) Cash adjustments. (1) The Federal agency will make prompt payment to the grantee for allowable reimbursable costs.

(2) The grantee must immediately refund to the Federal agency any balance of unobligated (unencumbered) cash advanced that is not authorized to be retained for use on other grants.

$18.51 Later disallowances and adjustments.

The closeout of a grant does not affect:

(a) The Federal agency's right to disallow costs and recover funds on the basis of a later audit or other review;

(b) The grantee's obligation to return any funds due as a result of later refunds, corrections, or other transactions;

(c) Records retention as required in $18.42;

(d) Property management requirements in §§ 18.31 and 18.32; and

(e) Audit requirements in § 18.26.

$18.52 Collection of amounts due.

(a) Any funds paid to a grantee in excess of the amount to which the grantee is finally determined to be entitled under the terms of the award constitute a debt to the Federal Government. If not paid within a reasonable period after demand, the Federal agency may reduce the debt by:

(1) Making an adminstrative offset against other requests for reimbursements,

tive order. Non-profit organizations that implement Federal programs for the States are also subject to State requirements.

§ 19.2 Definitions.

(a) Accrued expenditures means the charges incurred by the recipient during a given period requiring the provision of funds for:

(1) Goods and other tangible property received;

(2) Services performed by employees, contractors, subrecipients, and other payees; and,

(3) Other amounts becoming owed under programs for which no current services or performance is required.

(b) Accrued income means the sum of: (1) Earnings during a given period from:

(1) Services performed by the recipient, and (ii) Goods and other tangible property delivered to purchasers; and

(2) Amounts becoming owed to the recipient for which no current services or performance is required by the recipient.

(c) Acquisition cost of equipment means the net invoice price of the equipment, including the cost of modifications, attachments, accessories, or auxiliary apparatus necessary to make the property usable for the purpose for which it was acquired. Other charges, such as the cost of installation, transportation, taxes, duty or protective in-transit insurance, shall be included or excluded from the unit acquisition cost in accordance with the recipient's regular accounting practices.

(d) Advance means a payment made by Treasury check or other appropriate payment mechanism to a recipient upon its request either before outlays are made by the recipient or through the use of predetermined payment schedules.

(e) Award means financial assistance that provides support or stimulation to accomplish a public purpose. Awards include grants and other agreements in the form of money or property in lieu of money, by the Federal Government to an eligible recipient. The term does not include: Technical assistance, which provides services instead of money; other assistance in the form of