AID-ASHA-15-000001 - Amendment 1 123114.pdf

Date: December 31, 2014

Subject: Amendment No. 1 to APS-ASHA-15-000001 for Office of American Schools and Hospitals Abroad (ASHA) Fiscal Year 2015 Program

A. Background and Purpose of this Amendment

The subject Annual Program Statement (APS) was issued on October 27, 2014. This Amendment No. 1 has the following purposes:

To revise text in the Full Announcement regarding completeness requirements; and

To answer questions received by USAID/ASHA regarding this solicitation.

B. Description of Amendment to Full Announcement

SECTION D.3: “Application Submission and Deadline” (pg. 5-6)

DELETE: “Applications that are not received before this deadline will not be reviewed.”

INSERT: “Incomplete applications and applications that are not received before this deadline will not be reviewed.”

C. Questions and Answers

1. Q: Can USAID/ASHA guide our organization through the application process?

A: The posted solicitation, including this and other amendments, is the extent of the guidance USAID/ASHA can provide to applicants, so as to maintain a fair competition. Applicants are encouraged to review all the information included in this solicitation and on the USAID/ASHA website, at http://www.usaid.gov/work-usaid/business-funding/grant-programs/american-schools-and-hospitals-abroad.

2. Q: Our overseas institution (OSI) is eligible according to the criteria included in the APS, but we do not currently have a partnership with a sponsoring U.S. organization (USO). Can USAID/ASHA help us identify one?

A: USAID/ASHA cannot help OSIs identify USOs to apply on their behalf.

3. Q: Are public universities in the United States that do not have 501(c)(3) status eligible to serve as USOs for the purposes of this APS?

A: As stated in the APS, the USO must be a registered tax-exempt non-profit organization in the United States, such as (but not limited to) those organized under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1954, as amended. It is USAID/ASHA’s understanding that public universities are commonly considered by the Internal Revenue Service to be tax-exempt non-profit organizations and, if so, would be eligible to serve as USOs, provided that the particular university in question does qualify as having tax-exempt non-profit status.

4. Q: May an application request funds to support expenses incurred prior to the beginning of an award?

A: All USAID/ASHA funds must be used to finance expenses occurred during the life of the award.

Funds may not be expended on costs incurred either prior to an award or following the completion of an award.

5. Q: May an application use USAID/ASHA funds to pay for loans that were used to finance prior construction projects or commodity purchases?

A: USAID/ASHA funds may not be used to pay for loans or for any activities conducted prior to the date of the USAID/ASHA grant.

6. Q: Will USAID/ASHA share proposals that were successful in competitions from prior years?

A: While USAID is subject to the legal requirements of the Freedom of Information Act, it does not have any specific plans to release proposals from prior years to the public at this time.

7. Q: Criterion (c) of Section C.1 states that one way of defining “control or management” of an OSI by a government is if a majority of the members of its Board of Directors are government employees or appointees. Could USAID/ASHA elaborate on what a majority means in this context?

A: A “majority” in this context means that over 50% of an OSI’s Board of Directors consists of government employees or appointees. For example, if an organization has 12 members of its Board of Directors, and six are government employees or appointees (i.e. 50% exactly), that organization would be eligible to serve as an OSI for this competition, provided it meets all other eligibility requirements. However, if seven members of this organization’s Board of Directors are government employees or appointees (i.e. more than 50%), that institution would not be eligible to serve as an OSI for the purposes of this competition.

8. Q: Are the National Institutes of Health (NIH) or any of their component Institutes and Centers eligible to serve as USOs for the purposes of this competition?

A: As NIH is part of the Department of Health and Human Services, a federal agency, it is not eligible for this competition, which is not intended to support federal agencies.

9. When the Board of Directors of an OSI contains representatives of the United States Government, do these individuals count as “government employees or appointees” for the purposes of eligibility criterion (c)?

A: The composition of the Board of Directors is only relevant in so far as it can denote control or management of an organization by a government. As such, the relevant test is not the aggregate number of government employees and appointees, but rather whether any one government controls a majority of the positions on an organization’s Board of Directors. This provision applies to the U.S. Government as well.

10. Q: I am having problems with the Grants.gov interface or the SF- 424 Forms. Can you help me?

A: For technical assistance on Grants.gov or the SF-424 Family of Forms, use the resources available on the “Support” tab of Grants.gov or contact Grants.gov at 1-800-518-4726 or support@grants.gov.

mailto:support@grants.gov