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Review the contract in a face-to-face meeting. 

• Before signing any contracts, meet in-person with the program manager and the grantee’s designated compliance administrator to ensure all parties have a clear understanding of the contract. At this time, it’s important to:
  • Ensure you have a understand the language in the contract and that you know exactly what you are signing. Ask questions, and ensure you know what deliverables are expected.
  • Review the invoice and billing process, and ask the grantee for checklists and templates to ensure you meet program compliance requirements.
  • Review federal, state and program-specific requirements, such as HUD’s requirement to hire Section 3 residents or Section 3 businesses when using Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery (CDBG-DR) funding.
  • Sign-off on all forms at the meeting to ensure they’re completed correctly and on-time.
  • Assign a staff member from your agency to act as the single point of communication for all accounting and compliance.

Work with the grantee to establish an aggressive but reasonable project timeline.

• At the onset of the project, meet with the program manager to develop a timeline for work to be completed that is aggressive but realistic. Ensure your agency is prepared with enough staff and organizational systems in place to keep up with the demands of a fast-paced disaster recovery program.

• Set up an internal timeline alert system that notifies you of approaching and missed deadlines.

Know the program rules and regulations.

• Encourage the program manager to provide training on the rules and regulations specific to the grant program.

• Be aware that unlike private construction projects, contractors must adhere to federal, state and program-specific rules, and are not authorized to weigh-in on decisions that might exceed program guidelines. Personnel from the grantor organization, such as HUD, are authorized to make these decisions.

• Be cautious when communicating with homeowners and know your authority when answering homeowner questions. You should provide simple “yes we can” or “no we can’t” answers to ensure you don’t overstep your authority and fall out of compliance on strict program guidelines and limitations.