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MD.250.9.3, FNM – Financial Audit Review Program Certification in ROOT

Maryland Bulletin: 250-9-3
Subject: FNM – Financial Audit Review Program Certification in ROOT
Date: December 5, 2008

Purpose. To instruct field offices on the process to Certify MG documents in the ROOT.

Expiration Date. February 27, 2009

Action Required No Later Than:  December 17, 2008

Explanation.

Field offices are currently reviewing open ProTracts (MG) obligations and answering questions related to each contract identified in the Review of Open Obligations Tool (ROOT). The review process is completed after a Program Concurrence certifies that all questions have been answered correctly and any actions needed to validate the open obligation are completed or will be completed. State Office staff are conducting Quality Assurance Reviews (QAR) in each field office. The QAR will concur that the questions in the ROOT are answered correctly and documentation exists. The QAR will review a minimum of 10% or 10 contracts, whichever is greater.

Field offices will need to have the following actions completed on or before December 17, 2008:

  • Checklist Complete: All MG Documents will have the checklist complete and marked in Checklist tab in the ROOT.
     
  • All Required Actions Except as Noted: This will be checked after all actions identified in the checklist are completed or when the reason actions will occur after December 17 is entered into the Obligation Determination page.
     
  • Deobligation Complete: This date will be entered when action has been taken to deobligate the funds.
     
  • Required actions cannot be completed by December 30, 2008 (12/17 for Maryland) as noted in the Review Comments due to policy or statutory provisions. All actions, for any reason, required to make this a valid obligation must be completed by COB December 17. If these actions are not completed, NRCS will send a letter to the participant to initiate termination of the contract as per Part 512.57. This action requires, by policy, a 30 day response time from the participant. There must be an explanation in the comment box related to statutory or policy causing this action to occur after December 17.

Program Concurrence: All obligation review documents must be certified under a Program Concurrence. This will be the final review certifying that all actions are completed or explained as needed. Program concurrence will be done only after all actions are completed and documented in the file or box 5 has been checked and properly documented. Someone other than the person completing the Checklist and Obligation Determination must be the Program reviewer. The Program reviewer will verify all actions are completed or box 5 has a valid reason based on policy or statute. Again this will need to be completed no later than December 17.

Included with this bulletin are several screen shots from the ROOT showing what boxes and actions need to take place.

JON F. HALL
State Conservationist

Attachment: see email dated 12/5/2008

DIST: AE

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