Review of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Grant Closeout Procedures

We found that the 2,740 CDC grants identified by the HHS Division of Payment Management (DPM) as eligible for closeout as of March 31, 2007, which had unexpended balances totaling more than $245 million, remained open in the payment system for several reasons. CDC is responsible for initiating closeout of grants, and DPM is responsible for closing grants after receiving instructions from CDC. As a general rule, grants must be closed within 180 days after the end of the grant period (the cutoff date). However, neither CDC nor its contractor initiated closeout of some grants that were part of a backlog of grants awaiting closeout. Although closeout of other grants was initiated, the grants remained open beyond the cutoff dates because the award, expenditure, and drawdown amounts in the payment system differed or because the closeout code was not the final transaction in the system.

We recommended that CDC use the information in this report to ensure that grants are closed in a timely manner and to eliminate the backlog of grants eligible for closeout. In its comments, CDC concurred with our recommendation and described actions that it was taking or planned to take.