Bidder's Conference: G/TIP Proposal Review and Award

Required Documents

• Standard Forms 424
• NICRA
• Budget and Budget Narratives
• Resumes (See Solicitation Page 5-8)

Standard Forms 424

• Grants.gov established Standard Forms 424 (SF-424)
  • core government-wide standard data sets and forms for grant application packages
  • in order to reduce the administrative burden on the Grants Community
• Required for Competitive G/TIP Grants:
  •  SF 424 Core Form
  • Attachment 424 A-Budget Categories, Non Construction
  • Attachment 424 B -Assurances, Non Construction

Negotiated Indirect Cost Rate (NICRA)

• NICRA stands for Negotiated Indirect Rate Cost Rate Agreement. Simply put, it is a business'overhead.
• NICRAs are usually negotiated by the Federal Agency providing the most federal funding (Cognizant Agency). For the Department of State, AQM/IP has been designated the group to negotiate NICRAs.
• Charges that go into a NICRA would be things that cannot totally and directly be attributed to a program expense such as, but not limited to, rent, utilities, and usually the finance department.
• However, until a NICRA is established these costs must be broken down and directly charged in the budget.

Budgets and Budget Narratives

• Are to be completed by the Recipient of the Agreement, not the DOS.
• They need to be as detailed as possible (see sample budget format) .
• They need to be reviewed for content as it relates to the grant.
• Must abide by OMB Circulars and Federal Regulations as Allowable Costs (see OMB Circulars A-122, A-110, A-133).
• Summary Budget--The budget must identify the total amount of funding requested, in U.S. dollars, with a breakdown of amounts to be spent in the budget categories (1 page max).
• Line-Item Budget--The line-item budget should provide sufficient information for each summary category to justify the inclusion and reasonableness of the costs presented (3 page max).
• Budget Narrative--A budget narrative must accompany the line-item budget to sufficiently justify each identified cost (3 page max).

Competition Issues

• Technical requirements
• Proposal content
• Proposal rating criteria
• Program priorities
• Selection process

Technical Requirements

• Designed to ensure a level playing field for all applicants, by controlling the type and amount of information submitted, and how and when it's submitted.
• Requirements are stated in the solicitation
  • Note page limitations, font and margin size, required forms, appendices
• Key to meeting the Technical Requirements for any solicitation is careful, detailed review of the solicitation.

Proposal Content

• G/TIP solicitations contain a standard proposal format, which identifies the information we need to effectively review what you are proposing to accomplish. The format includes:

1. Required Forms 
2. Abstract
3. Problem Statement
4. Project Goals/Objectives/Implementation Plan
5. Organizational Capability
6. Appendices

• Budgets/Budget Narrative
• Resume
• Letters of Intent

Proposal Rating Criteria

1. Required Forms
2. Abstract
3. Problem Statement (20 points)
4. Project Goals/Objectives/Implementation Plan (40 pts)
5. Organizational Capability (20 pts)
6. Appendices (20 pts)

• Budgets/Budget Narrative
• Resume
• Letters of Intent

Proposal Review and Grant Award

• G/TIP convenes interagency review panels by Region
  • Representatives of DOS, relevant USG agencies and expertise
  • Several weeks are needed to review the proposals
• The rating criteria are applied universally to all proposals
• Proposals are considered within the context of G/TIP Funding Priorities
• The results of the Panels are reviewed by the G/TIP Director. Bilateral, Regional and Global factors are considered in the final analysis.

Proposal Review and Grant Award

• The G/TIP Director makes funding recommendations to the Director of Foreign Assistance (OFA).
  • No funding decision is final until approved by OFA andappropriate Congressional notification is made.
• All G/TIP grants are circulated for members of the Senior Policy Operating Group (SPOG) for review.
• Grant negotiation and award by G/TIP Grant Officer
• Time from proposal submission to grant award is more than 12 months. We are striving to improve this.