EPA Grants Management & Disadvantaged Business Enterprise Rule

Administrative and Financial Systems & DBE Rule

Training and Technical Assistance Initiative for Tribes, U.S. Territories and Insular Areas

July 2008 – December 2013

The U.S. EPA Office of Grants and Debarment (OGD) and Office of Small Business Programs (OSBP) entered into a multi-year contract with National PETE to develop this Tribal training and technical assistance initiative. The cutting-edge program involved a multifaceted approach to provide Tribes, U.S. Territories, and Insular Areas with training in the proper management of EPA funds through assistance awards, and OSBP’s new Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Rule.

There are four essential components to the process of managing EPA assistance agreement awards:

  1. Application and Review Process
  2. Management Systems
  3. Financial Systems
  4. Closeout Process

The training that was developed involved the presentation of ten modules explaining how each process works by outlining Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and grantee roles and responsibilities from first application through the grant award’s closeout. The modules include:

  1. HOW IT ALL STARTS: THE GRANT APPLICATION PROCESS
  2. ASSISTANCE AGREEMENT AWARDS
  3. BINDING AGREEMENTS
  4. GRANTS MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
  5. ADMINISTRATIVE SYSTEM COMPONENTS
  6. FINANCIAL SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
  7. ACCOUNTING POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
  8. SOURCE DOCUMENTATION FOR PROCUREMENT AND PURCHASING
  9. DISADVANTAGED BUSINESS ENTERPRISES (DBEs)
  10. ASSISTANCE AGREEMENT MONITORING AND CLOSEOUT

After taking the training, participants had a better understanding of how to manage their EPA grant, in addition to an awareness of the DBE Rule (which is designed to help ensure that small, minority, and women-owned businesses are given the opportunity to benefit from and participate in EPA grants). The program was designed to enhance Administrator/Tribal Council/Project Manager understanding of how to administer a Federal grant, improve compliance with documentation requirements, and increase cost accounting knowledge.

National PETE provided training nationally through interactive workshops, webinars, and an asynchronous web course. Leech Lake Tribal College (Cass Lake, MN) and United Tribes Technical College (Bismarck, ND), two Tribal Community Colleges, were competitively selected to serve as satellite Tribal College Training Centers for Grant Management and the DBE Rule Implementation. National PETE served as a third training entity, working to disseminate the training on the East Coast, out to U.S. Territories and Insular Areas, and in other areas of the country not covered by the Tribal College Centers. Additionally, during the 2009/2010 school year, six Tribal Community Colleges were competitively selected to pilot the integration of the training into their existing Tribal Administrative or related Business programs:

  • United Tribes Technical College (Bismarck, ND)
  • Oglala Lakota College (Kyle, SD)
  • Sitting Bull College (Fort Yates, ND)
  • Sinte Gleska University (Mission, SD)
  • Cankdeska Cikana (Fort Totten, ND)
  • Little Priest Tribal College (Winnebago, NE)

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