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<br />9A <br />Page 4 <br /> <br />3. Continue working with federal agencies and encourage them to provide or improve <br />program specific guidance to assist recipients, especially as it applies to the FTE <br />calculation for individual programs." <br /> <br />To read the report, please visit: www.aao.qov/new.items/d10223.odf. <br />U.S. Department of Labor Announces $55 Million in Green Jobs Training Grants <br /> <br />On Nov. 18, the U.S. Department of labor announced nearly $55 million in ARRA green jobs <br />grants. The grant awards announced were for State labor Market Information Improvement <br />Grants ($48.8 million) and Green Capacity Building Grants ($5.8 million). <br /> <br />For a list and description ofthe grant awards, please visit: www.doleta.aov/odf/GreenJobs.odf. <br /> <br />OMB Works to Improve Guidance on ARRA Reporting <br /> <br />OMB is In the final stages of issuing clarifying guidance based n responses from states and other <br />recipients to OMB's ARRA survey that allowed recipients to provide feedback on the October <br />reporting period. The guidance is not expected to make significant changes and is instead <br />expected to focus on providing better explanations of existing provisions as well as further <br />clarifying language. <br /> <br />The memo Is expected to include simplified step by step instructions regarding calculating jobs. <br />The guidance will also be timed to the release of a "jobs calculator" that OMB will make available <br />to recipients in order to help both in the calculation of jobs created/retained as well as In the <br />overall consistency among all levels of recipients. <br /> <br />OMS is developing a peer review process to ensure that future federal agency issued guidance <br />does not contain errors or conflict with OMS guidance. The Recovery Accountability and <br />Transparency Board is also expected to issue a document in the near future highlighting changes <br />that have been made to www.federalreoortina.aov. The most noticeable enhancement is that the <br />board plans to allow recipients to download previously submitted reports and edit them before <br />resubmission so that recipients would not have to re-enter data. <br /> <br />For congressional districts, the board stated that its goal is to be able to pre-populate such <br />Information although they were not sure if that would be ready by Jan. 1 and are thus preparing to <br />have the system compare the zip or zip+4 contained in the report to the congressional district. <br /> <br />The internal audit check regarding the jobs figure would notify reporting recipients if the number <br />of jobs was out of line with the amount of money expended, such as if no jobs were reported <br />when a substantial amount of funding had been expended or vice versa, or if numerous jobs were <br />reported as created or retained when very little or no funding was expended. <br /> <br />The guidance will also contain further specification on certain definitions, including the term <br />"Infrastructure" given certain problems that occurred during the October reporting period. As <br />infrastructure projects are often financed from multiple sources, certain reports included funding <br />amounts that exceeded what had been provided by the federal government. <br /> <br />The board is also working on allowing recipients to remove any errors in their reports that are <br />found after the reports are made public on the Dec. 30. Given continuing concerns about smaller <br />non-reporting recipients, including local and county governments, the board is requesting any <br />ideas that could increase the percentage of such recipients who are required to report to <br />WNW .federalreoortina.aov. <br /> <br />4 <br />