All cooperative agreements |
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Substantial Involvement occurs when the Recipient and FWS participate together in the management and/or performance of the activity/project during post-award. This collaboration is programmatic in nature and may provide benefits (e.g. technical expertise, use of specialized equipment, labor) that would otherwise be unavailable to the Recipient.
According to OMB Implementation Guidance to Federal agencies that issue Cooperative Agreements[1], the language of the Substantial Involvement statement should be properly detailed to avoid ambiguity of responsibilities of each party (Federal Awarding Agency and the Recipient) in the agreement, with the interest of protecting the Federal government from liability.
"Statement of Federal involvement. Each cooperative agreement should include an explicit statement of the nature, character, and extent of anticipated Federal involvement. These statements must be developed with care to avoid unnecessarily increasing Federal liability under the assistance instrument." [2]
Substantial involvement is NOT the same as the Service's normal Federal stewardship responsibilities, nor is it to be used solely as a means of exercising greater control over the recipient. OMB policy encourages Federal agencies to limit use of Substantial involvement as much as possible, consistent with its Program requirements.
"OMB policy on substantial involvement. Agencies should limit Federal involvement in assisted activities to the minimum consistent with program requirements. Nothing in this Act should be construed as authorizing agencies to increase their involvement beyond that authorized by other statutes." [3]
Substantial involvement (sometimes referred to as Substantial Federal Involvement) has at least one of the following characteristics: [4]
Substantial involvement is not considered to be: [5]
From the Notice of Award template:
If the award is for a cooperative agreement, include a detailed and project-specific description of the substantial activities to be carried out by Service staff under the award (“The Service will…” and “the Recipient will…” statements). Substantial involvement does NOT include: awarding funds, assigning a project officer, reviewing and approving standard financial and performance reports, processing payments, monitoring to ensure project is completed on time, or performing any other routine administrative and monitoring activities. These responsibilities are inherent to every financial assistance award and do NOT justify issuing a cooperative agreement! Do not include these types of activities in the “The Service will…” substantial involvement statement.[5]
Funding opportunities for expected cooperative agreement awards must include in the Synopsis description the following:
“Substantial involvement on the part of the Service is anticipated for the successful completion of the activities to be funded. In particular, the Service will be/expects to be responsible for the following: [list the specific project-related activities to be performed by Service staff].”[6]
[1] Office of Management and Budget Implementation of Federal Grant and Cooperative Agreement Act of 1977 (Pub. L 95-224) (PDF available here).
[2] ibid, G.2.
[3] ibid, C. 2.
[4] 505 DM 2.9 B(3)(a)
[5] ibid., (b)
[5] SERVICE PERSONNEL: See the FASO-Policy Branch InsideFWS webpage for current version of NOA template.
[6] "Issuing a New Financial Assistance Award Guidance", Step 3 B., pg. 10.