Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Reporting for Entitlement Grantees for 1997 Program Year

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February 18, 1998

MEMORANDUM FOR: CPD Field Office Directors
All Consolidated Plan Entitlement Grantees

FROM: Saul N. Ramirez, Jr., Assistant Secretary
Community Planning and Development

SUBJECT: Consolidated Annual Performance and Evaluation Reporting
for Entitlement Grantees for 1997 Program Year

HUD and its Community Planning and Development (CPD) formula grant program grantees are near completion of a successful transition to the new Integrated Disbursement and Information System (IDIS). All Entitlement grantees should be using the system to track disbursements and report performance for the program year. Grantees are now beginning a period when they must report on 1997 program year accomplishments and performance, and Field Office staff subsequently must review that performance. This round of reporting will provide an important opportunity for both CPD grantees and HUD staff to use IDIS to meet reporting and evaluation requirements. The attached instructions should facilitate Field Office oversight of this task.

This memorandum and the attached instructions provide guidance on how to comply with all current HUD regulatory and statutory requirements for reporting program performance and accomplishments. This memorandum supersedes prior guidance on this subject contained in the December 5, 1996 Memorandum on "Interim Performance Reporting for 1996 Consolidated Plan Program Year.

The substance of the guidance is divided into three components:

1. The first part, here stated, instructs grantees to use IDIS to comply with current reporting requirements. To initiate annual reporting, all grantees should update all current activities in IDIS to include all required financial and performance information (It is current Departmental policy that Grantees should update IDIS information quarterly). Grantees can review the adequacy of this information using relevant reporting capabilities within IDIS. The one exception is for the Financial Summary Form that is not yet fully operational in IDIS. Please report this information using HUD Form 4949-3 and follow the normal procedures described in Appendix 3 of the GPR Handbook (Handbook 6510.2 REV-2). This form and necessary instructions are attached for your convenience.

2. The second part is a program-by-program identification of all necessary narrative requirements that grantees must provide. (See attachment)

3. A third component, entitled IDIS Reports, provide separate instructions on the necessary IDIS reports to generate summary accomplishments and performance information that grantees will need to share with citizens and HUD Field Office staff will need to assess grantee performance. (See attachment)

Separate guidance will be provided to states at a later time.

It is important to clear up several lingering misconceptions about IDIS. It is not necessary that Grantees be operational in IDIS for a full program year before they can use IDIS to report performance information for the entire program year. IDIS provides an effective format for reporting all 1997 performance information regardless how long the grantee has been operational in IDIS. Grantees who are going on-line with IDIS for the first time can report their entire program year accomplishments in IDIS.

Grantees can add activities initiated during the program year but begun prior to their entry into IDIS. They can enter these activities in the same manner as any other activities. Grantees can use IDIS to enter this data as easily as any other existing system (such as ENTERS) but can facilitate better communication with HUD about performance issues by getting all of their performance information in one place--namely IDIS. By using IDIS, grantees will limit their paperwork, provide a common platform for communication, and eliminate a later need to load reporting information into IDIS.

Additionally, IDIS contains ample reporting features to allow grantees to comply with accounting and audit requirements and required review of performance information by citizens. There are currently 27 pre-programmed report features and five pre-programmed downloads available in IDIS. Grantees should use these reporting features only to report to their citizens. Field Offices should not require grantees to provide paper copies of IDIS-generated reports.

HUD Field Office staff should access grantee information independently and produce whatever reports are necessary for their review as needed upon notification from grantees that their performance reports are complete. Attachments to this memorandum instruct Field Office staff on the use of approximately 13 IDIS reports for reviewing a grantee's annual performance.

There are numerous CDBG grantees with program years that end on December 31st. It is important to convey these instructions to your grantees as soon as possible. Grantees must provide an annual picture of their program performance within 90 days of the end of their program year. Field Offices should ensure that grantees and Field Office staff are adequately briefed on the IDIS system to prepare performance reports and conduct these reviews. There will continue to be training conducted on IDIS and it is imperative that CPD Field Office staff obtain necessary skills as soon as possible.

As a final note, the importance of timely and accurate performance reports cannot be overstated. Grantees should strive to ensure that all applicable deadlines are met. Performance reporting meets three basic purposes:

	it provides HUD with necessary information for the Department to meet its statutory requirement to assess each grantee's ability to carry out relevant CPD programs in compliance with all applicable rules and regulations;
	it provides information necessary for HUD's Annual Report to Congress, also statutorily mandated; and
	it provides grantees an opportunity to describe to citizens their successes in revitalizing deteriorated neighborhoods and meeting objectives stipulated in their Consolidated Plan. HUD shares grantees' interest in assuring that citizens, community groups and others interested stakeholders in the community development process are accurately informed of the use of these federal resources. We also acknowledge that traditional reports containing extensive statistical information are always informative. For that reason, we are attempting to provide grantees with the flexibility to format and arrange data in ways that will best communicate to local audiences. Maps often substitute effectively for written data and we encourage the use of this technology in developing this report.

Attachments