Dear COPS Office Award Recipient –
The COPS Office fully supports your efforts and recognizes the challenges we face together. Effective Monday, March 16, pursuant to OMB Memorandum M-20-15, dated March 15, 2020, the Department of Justice moved to a posture of maximum telework in the National Capital Region until further notice. The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS Office) staff are working remotely and will be available to assist grantees, stakeholders, and the public during this period. Likewise, all associated systems and services will be available.
Grant Payments: The Grants Payment Request System (GPRS) is in service to accept and process grant payment requests.
Compliance monitoring: All planned on-site monitoring will be conducted as remote monitoring or postponed for a later date until otherwise notified. The COPS Office monitoring staff will be in contact with you to make arrangements where applicable. If your organization is unable to participate in remote monitoring due to operational limitations, you may request postponement until a later date.
Conferences, events, and other gatherings: For COPS Office-sponsored conferences, meetings, trainings, and other gatherings that are scheduled in the near term, cooperative agreement recipients should work with their COPS Office staff award points of contact (POC) to set up meetings as virtual events, postpone, or cancel as appropriate. For events planned farther out, please work on a case-by-case basis with your COPS Office award POC.
Grantees should contact their COPS Office award POCs to address issues resulting from any postponed or canceled meetings, such as using grant funds to cover hotel or travel related cancellation fees and penalties.
Grantees should try to have the airline reimburse the cancelled ticket(s) back to the original form of payment. However, if the airline will only refund the cancellation as a credit:
- The grantee should apply the credit to a future trip for the same COPS Office grant or project.
- If that is not possible, the grantee should use the credit for another COPS Office program or project and reimburse the original COPS Office grant or project with the equivalent dollar amount.
- If neither of those options is possible, then the grantee should process the trip as a cancellation, which COPS Office approves to be charged to the grant due to this mitigating circumstance.
Grantees should provide similar guidance to subrecipients (that is, subgrantees) when applicable. Please work with your COPS Office award POCs to document applicable changes via a modification in for record keeping purposes.
Interruptions in performance of work under the grant: Grantees (and subrecipients/subgrantees) should review the DOJ Grants Financial Guide and the Part 200 Uniform Requirements (2 C.F.R. Part 200, as adopted by DOJ) (see, for example, 2 CFR 200.430 and 2 C.F.R. 200.431, under Subpart E – Cost Principles), and the grantee’s (or subrecipient’s/subgrantee’s) local governing policies, to help in determining how the grantee’s personnel costs may be treated during any period(s) of interruption to the performance of work under the award. Grantees should direct any questions about allowability of costs to their COPS Office award POCs or contact the COPS Office Response Center via email at askcopsRC@usdoj.gov or by phone at 800-421-6770.
Award extensions: In accordance with Part 200 Uniform Requirements (2 C.F.R. Part 200, as adopted by DOJ) and consistent with the DOJ Grants Financial Guide, most COPS Office awards may be eligible for a no-cost extension at the discretion of the COPS Office.
Programmatic and Financial Reporting Requirements: Grantees should continue to complete reporting requirements as timely as possible. If additional time is needed to complete programmatic or financial reporting requirements, please contact your COPS Office award POCs or contact the COPS Office Response Center via email at askcopsRC@usdoj.gov or by phone at 800-421-6770.
Solicitations: The COPS Office has extended the solicitation deadline for several open grant programs due to the potential impact of jurisdictional emergency responses to COVID-19 that may cause reasonable delays for applicants. The following program deadlines have been extended:
- Deadline Extended from March 31 to April 14
- Deadline Extended from April 8 to April 22
- Deadline Extended from April 8 to April 29
Thank you all for your patience and your continued efforts to keep our communities safe and advance public safety.
