Submit Your Closeouts!

[SLY4420]

Thankfully this wasn't one of my grants, but a friend got a DJ in this last Round. He wasn't the previous grant administrator, but he took it on this year. Talk about a kick in the nuts.

Dear Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program Applicant:

On behalf of the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Grants and Training, I would like to thank you for applying for a grant under the Fiscal Year (FY) 2006 Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program (AFG). As you are aware, the AFG is an extremely competitive program. For FY06, the Department received 18,000 applications, which contained requests for over $2.3 billion in Federal dollars. Because of this extremely high volume of applications and the limited amount of funding available for grant awards, many applicants who demonstrated great need and worthy project proposals will not receive awards this year. As such, we regret to inform you that we are not able to fund your application at this time.

Your application was reviewed by a panel of your peers and scored well enough to be funded. However, incomplete fulfillment of the requirements on your previous AFG award(s) prevents us from funding this request. The AFG program guidance states that we may take into account an applicant's performance on prior grants when making funding decisions on current applications. In order for you to bring your department into good standing for future grant opportunities, you will need to provide DHS with an accounting of your grant expenditures by submitting the required closeout reports. If you have any questions regarding what is due, please contact your regional representative or the helpdesk at 1-866-274-0960.

The work you have already done to submit your application for the 2006 program could be a useful resource for your department for future requests for assistance. As such, I encourage you to keep a copy of your application for your records. You may be able to use it as a reference for a future grant program, or even share it with your community as the outline of a strategic plan for the enhancement of your department. Please check our website often at www.firegrantsupport.com for information on this grant program and future funding opportunities.

Your interest in this program clearly demonstrates the need and resourcefulness of America's fire service. The Department of Homeland Security will continue to work closely with fire service organizations to support the vital work of our nation's firefighters.

Thank you again for your dedication and commitment.

Sincerely,

Andy Mitchell
Director of Operations
Office of Grants and Training

[onebugle]

That point was made very clear this Am at the Workshop. Don't complete the proper paperwork=denied grant, especially if you ignore their follow ups on the paperwork.

[ktb9780]

That point was made very clear this Am at the Workshop. Don't complete the proper paperwork=denied grant, especially if you ignore their follow ups on the paperwork.

As I preach in the seminars folks, the job is just starting when you recieve the award and ithe job is not done till the paperwork is filed. They have been lenient in the past on this but, departments kept ignoring the warrings and this is the end result.

[jboczek]

The thing is, it's not that difficult of a job to get a grant closed out. Just fill in the blanks, write a little story, click submit and wait for the reply. What a shame, but the rules are laid out for us and we gotta follow them.

[Limeforever]

We were awarded a safety house/command trailer grant in Feb. for our department as soon as we got nitofication of award, I spent days on the phone with the vendors working out details, and getting a final bid price. got the trailer ordered in March it was delivered in August. Has been in service since about a week after we got it in. (Had to train all of our guys on it) I have been waiting to close out ever since then. No pulldown available, called dhs and was told the program was not ready to start processing closeouts yet, that I had to wait till the end of my POP. That was last week. So I can finally get a couple of days rest till I start back again in March of sleepless nights and no fingernails. OH almost forgot, the Chief asking me every other day did we get that grant yet.

[EastKyFF]

Ouch.

Well, sometimes "Please please please" doesn't work.