Daily Archives: March 18, 2020

The U.S. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued the following memorandum, dated March 9, 2020, Administrative Relief for Recipients and Applicants of Federal Financial Assistance Directly Impacted by the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19).

In response to that alert, the Governmental Audit Quality Center (GAQC) of the AICPA followed up with OMB to clarify certain points made in the memo and issued their own alert No. 398 as follows:

• The OMB memo discusses a potential extension of the single audit submission deadline by 12 months. OMB clarified that this extension cannot be applied to ALL recipients as of right now. The memo is intended to provide guidance to federal agencies relating to areas where relief may be provided to certain
• The guidance in the OMB memo primarily relates to recipients receiving funds for coronavirus preparation and response (H.R. 6074). There could be cases where agencies may decide to apply the guidance to existing awards that are deemed by the agency to be for continued research and services necessary to carry out the emergency response relating to COVID-19.
• Federal agencies are expected to issue their own guidance.
• OMB is working on additional guidance to address situations where recipients may have operations that have been adversely impacted by COVID-19 but are not recipients of H.R.6074 funds.
• The GAQC recommends that entities and auditors contact the National Single Audit Coordinator at the cognizant or oversight agency if there are concerns about meeting the upcoming March 31, 2020 deadline (for June 30, 2019 single audit submissions).

If you have any questions, or would like more clarification on this issue, please contact our office.