November 14, 2023
AGENCY FOR HEALTHCARE RESEARCH AND QUALITY (AHRQ)
Under the provisions of Section 1405(a) of Public Law No. 101-510 amended 31 U.S.C. 1551-1557 (commonly referred to as M-Account Legislation), all federal agencies are required to close fixed year appropriation accounts and cancel any remaining balances on any awards issued out of the fixed year appropriation accounts by September 30th of the 5th fiscal year after the period of availability. Translated into terms applicable to award recipients and awarding agencies, all undrawn award funding falling under the M-Account condition will no longer be available for program expenditures, obligations or payment requests.
This Notice reminds all AHRQ grant recipients who received grant funding from AHRQ in Fiscal Year (FY) 2019 (10/1/2018 - 9/30/2019) to check the Program Support Center (PSC) Payment Management System (PMS) website for information regarding the last day to draw funds on awards issued using FY2019 fixed appropriation funds. The last day to draw funds is often earlier than September 30.
Grant awards funded with a 2019 annual appropriation will cancel and no longer be available to the grantee organization or to the awarding agency. Grantees will not be able to access FY2019 funds for any reason (program expenditures, obligations, or payment requests). All awards issued using 2019 fixed appropriation funds must be closed and all remaining balances cancelled by September 30, 2024.
Grantees may contact their Payment Management System (PMS) liaison accountant for questions regarding viewing award authorizations in PMS, drawing funds, or reporting expenditures in the PMS FFR-Cash Transaction Report.
Information about the PMS can be found at https://pms.psc.gov/. Detailed information specifically about Cancelled Awards and what steps grantees should take to ensure that all disbursements are correctly reported is updated by PSC annually and can be found at https://pms.psc.gov/grant-recipients/cancelled-awards.html.