10- 144 C.M.R. ch. 2, § 1.5

Current through 2024-51, December 18, 2024

Section 144-2-1.5 - Annual Requirements

A. Community action agencies shall submit the following items upon designation and thereafter submit to the Division any changes or amendments to those items:

1. Articles of Incorporation;

2. Proof of IRS Section 501(c)(3) status;

3. A statement of the appeals procedure available to denied applicants for services operated in conjunction with CSBG funds;

4. Biographical summaries of the community action agency executive director and fiscal officer.

B. The following documents are to be reviewed by the board of directors each year and submitted to the Division if any amendments or changes have been made:

1. Bylaws

2. Personnel Policies;

3. Affirmative Action Plan; and

4. Financial Procedures Manual, which documents all financial activities.

C. Annually the CAA shall:

1. Adequately plan for a comprehensive program designed to use available funds:

a. To provide a range of services and activities having a measurable and potentially major impact on causes and conditions of poverty in the service area or those areas of the service area where poverty is a particularly acute problem.

b. To provide activities designed to assist low-income residents including the elderly poor in the service area:

(i) To secure and retain meaningful employment;

(ii) To attain an adequate education;

(iii) To make better use of available income;

(iv) To obtain and maintain adequate housing and a suitable living environment;

(v) To obtain emergency assistance through loans or grants to meet immediate and urgent individual and family needs, including the need for health services, nutritious food, housing, and employment-related assistance;

(vi) To remove obstacles and solve problems which block the achievement of self-sufficiency;

(vii) To achieve greater participation in the affairs of the community;

(viii) To make more effective use of other programs related to the purposes of this CSBG program.

c. To provide on an emergency basis for the provision of such supplies and services, nutritious food stuffs, and related services as may be necessary to counteract conditions of starvation and malnutrition among the poor .

d. To coordinate and establish linkages between governmental and other social services programs to assure the effective delivery of such services to low-income individuals.

e. To encourage the use of the private sector of the community in efforts to ameliorate poverty in the service area.

2. Agree and certify that:

a. No CSBG funds of a community action agency or its delegate agency shall be used to pay the salary or expenses of any staff member or agent acting for such recipient or delegate agency to engage in any activity designed to influence legislation or appropriations pending before the U.S. Congress.

b. Its board members, volunteers and employees will not:

(i) Use his or her official position authority or influence for the purpose of interfering with or affecting the result of an election or a nomination for public office; or

(ii) Directly or indirectly coerce, attempt to coerce, command or advise a state, local or CAA officer or employee to pay, lend, or contribute anything of value to a party, committee, organization, agency or person for political purposes.

c. Its employees will not be a candidate for public elective office, except nonpartisan candidacies are permitted. An employee may be a candidate in any election if none of the candidates is to be nominated or elected at such election as representing a party any of whose candidates for Presidential elector received votes in the last preceding election at which Presidential electors were selected.

d. No CSBG funds or CSBG-funded employees or equipment shall be used for activities to provide voters with transportation to the polls or provide similar assistance in connection with an election or any voter registration activity. This does not prohibit access to the public areas or office space to a community action agency's facilities for voter registration activities, so long as those activities do not Interfere with the normal operation of the office.

e. It will provide for coordination between antipoverty programs in its service area where appropriate with the emergency energy crisis intervention program (ECIP) conducted in its service area.

f. No person shall on the ground of race, color, national origin, sex, age or handicap be denied the benefits of or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity funded in whole or in part with funds made available under a CSBG sub-grant.

3. Submit the following documents as a part of its funding application on a date set by the Division:

a. Work Plan (CSBG forms 2, 2a - 4 copies;

b. Budget (CSBG Forms 3, 4, 5) - 4 copies;

c. Board Membership List by sector and indicating the date of appointment/election and the term of office;

d. Updated Financial Procedures Manual.

4. Submit agency and program information and data as prescribed by the Division for purpose of preparation of the annual report. This information is to be made available to the Division by December 1 of each calendar year. The reporting period shall be the previous federal fiscal year beginning. on October 1 and ending on September 30. This information shall include, but not be limited to the following:

a. Senior staff;

b. Board membership;

c. Program services information, such as households served and program budget information;

d. Brief program descriptions for use in program glossary;

e. Summary of agency financial support data by source of funds: total, federal, state, county, town and others, as well as the percent each category represents of total agency funding;

f. Agency administrative budget and employment

5. Submit a copy of the CAA annual report.

D.Funding Approval

1. The Division will approve an application for funding from a designated agency when the work plan:

a. Shows evidence of adequate program planning;

b. Proposes services and activities having a measurable and potentially major impact on causes of poverty in the service area; and

c. Provides that CSBG funds will be used for direct service activities designed to assist low-income residents as set forth in Section 1.5C(l)(b) as follows:

i. At least 10% of the CSBG funds for CSBG FY 1985;

ii. At least 20% of the CSBG funds for CSBG FY 1986;

iii. At least 30% of the CSBG funds for CSBG FY 1987.

2. The Division reserves the right to require an applicant for CSBG funding to alter or revise its work plan and/or budget in order to meet realistic planning objectives or avoid duplication.

3. The Division reserves the right to publicize and issue a Request for Proposals in a competitive CSBG funding process for any service area or any portion of a service area when:

a. The service area is not being served;

b. A withdrawal of designation has occurred or has been initiated; or

c. The Division has discretionary funds to be expended.

4. The Division reserves the right to place a special condition on any sub-grant. Special conditions may include but are not limited to:

a. Designating mandatory provisions of an approved work plan;

b. Establishing alterations in a community action agency's service area;

c. Assuring compliance with state and federal rules and laws and the sub-grant;

d. Requiring improved service delivery to area residents;

e. Assuring implementation of the CSBG plan.

D. The Division approval of the work plan and budget is expressly contingent on the following conditions:

a. Improvement of Real Property

The community action agency agrees to expend no CSBG funds for the purchase or improvement of land, or the purchase, construction or permanent improvement of any building or other facility, with the exception of low-cost residential weatherization or other energy-related home repairs.

b. Fidelity Bonding/Liability Insurance The community action agency agrees to:

i. Secure fidelity bonding in the aggregate amount of no less than $500,000 for each employee and board member authorized to sign checks or obligate funds for the agency;

ii. Assume liability for unauthorized or improper fund obligations;

iii. Obtain adequate liability insurance for all professional staff, for personal injury and for property damage and

iv. Secure indemnification insurance for board members.

c. CSBG Fund Accounting

The community action agency agrees to maintain records in a manner that demonstrates proper disbursement of and accounting for CSBG funds and to cooperate with the Division's annual audit of CSBG funds or with other state or federal investigations fulfilling the purposes of Section 679 of the Community Services Block Grant Act.

d. Nondiscrimination. The community action agency agrees that no person shall on the basis of race, sex, national origin, religion, color, age or handicap be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of or be subjected to discrimination under any program or activity funded in whole or in part with CSBG funds.

e. Quarterly and Periodic Reports. The community action agency agrees to submit quarterly financial reports on CSBG Form 269 no later than twenty working days after the end of each calendar quarter. Such quarterly financial reports shall indicate all actual personnel, non-personnel and other expenditures for the quarter.

f. Revisions of Work Plan or Budget. The community action agency agrees to submit to the Division for its approval four (4) copies of CSBG Form 8, with attachments as necessary,, in the event of any proposed revision of an agency's approved work plan (Form 2 and 2A) or approved budget (CSBG Form 3, 4 and 5). No revision will be effective until the Division grants written approval on CSBG Form 8, except that the Sub-Grantee may transfer total amounts not to exceed 10% from one line item cost category of an approved budget to another line item cost category without securing prior Division approval.

E.Procedure for Termination of Funding

1. The Division may terminate present or future funding for any community action agency which received funding in the previous fiscal year for cause.

a. "For cause" shall include but not be limited to the following reasons:

(i) The Division's CSBG grant or any State appropriation or both have been suspended or terminated in whole or in part by CSBG, the State, or both;

(ii) The CAA has failed or is unwilling to comply with the terms and conditions of its approved work plan, budget or its sub-grant;

(iii) The CAA has submitted required reports which are incorrect or incomplete in any material respect or are filed untimely;

(iv) The CAA has failed to adequately monitor and evaluate program activities delegated to another agency or party;

(v) The CAA has failed to respond adequately to an audit disallowance under any CSBG sub-grant between the CAA and the Division. Notwithstanding the above, the Division shall not withhold funds for allowable costs incurred prior to any such termination;

(vi) Any matter that would constitute grounds for withdrawal of designation under Section 1.3(D).

2. A termination shall be preceded by a written notice of intent to terminate sent from the Division to the CAA executive director and board chairperson and the Community Services Advisory Board chairperson. The notice shall state the grounds for termination and set forth the procedure by which the CAA may show cause why the funding should not be terminated.

3. The CAA may request a hearing before a review board to show cause why the CAA should not be terminated. The request shall be made to the Division director within 10 working days of receipt of the notice of intent. A meeting of the Community Services Advisory Board shall be scheduled within 20 working days of receipt of the request in order to appoint an ad hoc review board to be composed of 3 members of the Community Services Advisory Board.

4. The review board shall hold a hearing within 20 working days of its appointment.

5. The review board shall issue a written recommendation in support of or in opposition to the Division's notice of intent within 10 working days of the review board hearing.

6. Within 5 working days of the review board's recommendation, the Director of the Division shall issue an order which terminates funding for the CAA, or rescinds the notice of intent, or provides for other appropriate action. If no hearing was requested, the Division Director may issue a termination order within 15 working days after the notice of intent to terminate.

7. A termination order is reviewable by the Secretary of Health and Human Services upon the request of either the CAA or the Division within 5 working days of the order. The Division shall request a review by the Secretary of any termination order. Such review shall be based upon the record. The termination order shall not become effective until a finding is issued by the Secretary confirming the Division's finding of cause.

8. To appeal the Division's termination order, the community action agency must file a petition for review of the final agency decision in the appropriate superior court within 30 days, under the Maine Rules of Civil Procedures, Rule 80B.

10- 144 C.M.R. ch. 2, § 1.5