FEATURE Review by Keenan T. McKinney
How To Prepare For ARPA Reporting On March 11, 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was signed into law. The ARPA established the Coronavirus State Fiscal Recovery Fund and Coronavirus Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, which together make up the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) program. This new program provides $350 billion to state, local, territorial and tribal governments to aid in response to the economic and public health impacts of COVID-19. If you are a recipient of this funding, you must adhere to the reporting requirements, as outlined in the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s, “Compliance and Reporting Guidance – State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds,” (Guidance). We highly encourage all governments receiving funding to review the Guidance for additional detail and clarification on recipients’ compliance and reporting responsibilities. See the Treasury’s website (https://home. treasury.gov/ ). (Note: Please check for updates, as the Guidance may be updated periodically.) The Compliance and Reporting Guidance includes “Table 2: Reporting requirements by recipient type,” that we have included at the end of this article. This article will: • Highlight key elements of the SLFRF Compliance and Reporting Guidance. • Share preparation tips for meeting the reporting requirements.
Key Elements Of The SLRF Compliance And Reporting Guidance There are three types of reporting requirements for the SLFRF program: 1. Interim Report: Provides initial overview of status and uses of funding. This is a one-time report.
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(Note: Per the Guidance, the Interim Report was due by Aug. 31, 2021, or 60 days after receiving funding if funding was received by Oct. 15, 2021. Non-entitlement units of local government were not required to submit an interim report. As the due dates will have passed as of the publish date of this article, we will not focus on the Interim Report in this article.) 2. Proj e c t a n d E x p e n d i tu re Reports: Report on projects funded, expenditures, contracts, subawards more than $50,000 and other information. 3. Recovery Plan Performance Report: Provides information on
the projects that large recipients are undertaking with program funding and how they plan to ensure program outcomes are achieved in an effective, efficient and equitable manner.
Let us take a closer look at the reporting requirements.
