Purpose

This bill would require stronger, standardized grants management across Minnesota’s executive agencies. It creates a system to assess grantees for fraud risk, sets up policies and procedures for grants, and gives a central office a coordinating role to improve oversight, training, and use of technology in grants.

Main Provisions

• Create general grants management policies and procedures applicable to all executive agencies.
• Include a grantee fraud risk rating system within these policies, with grants management requirements informed by vendor risk management.
• Allow the commissioner to approve exceptions to the policies for specific grant programs; exceptions must expire or be renewed after five years.
• Require executive agencies to retain management of their individual grant programs.
• Establish a central point of contact for statewide grants management policies and procedures, and use this office as a resource for training, evaluation, collaboration, and best practices.
• Ensure grants management needs are considered in developing, upgrading, and using statewide administrative systems; leverage existing technology where possible.
• Oversee and approve future professional and technical service contracts and other information technology spending related to grants management systems and activities.
• Create a central point of contact for comments about violations of statewide grants governance policies and about fraud and waste in grants processes; forward comments to the appropriate agency and follow up as needed.
• Provide a single listing of all available executive agency competitive grant opportunities and the resulting grant recipients.
• Allow the commissioner to selectively review the development and implementation of executive agency grants policies and practices, and compliance with best practices.
• Allow the commissioner to determine that it is cost-effective for agencies to develop and use shared grants management technology systems; such a system would be governed under a specified section.

Changes to Existing Law

• Amends Minnesota Statutes 2024 section 16B.97 subdivision 4 to add duties related to creating and enforcing statewide grants management policies, the grantee fraud risk rating system, central coordination and support, oversight of contracts and IT spending for grants, and the potential for shared grants management technology systems.

Significant Changes and Implications

• Shifts grants oversight toward a centralized governance framework while preserving agency ownership of individual grant programs.
• Introduces a formal mechanism to assess and address fraud risk among grant recipients (grantee fraud risk rating system) and ties it to broader vendor risk management principles.
• Creates a centralized resource and contact point to improve consistency, training, and sharing of best practices across agencies.
• Encourages potential cost savings and efficiency through shared grants management technology systems.
• Adds accountability mechanisms (central inbox for violations/fraud/waste and required reporting/coordination with agencies).

Relevant Terms - grants management - grantee fraud risk rating system - vendor risk management - executive agencies - statewide grants governance policies - central point of contact - fraud and waste - grants management technology systems - professional and technical service contracts - information technology spending - competitive grant opportunities - grant recipients - exceptions (five-year expiration) - shared grants management technology systems - Minnesota Statutes 2024 section 16B.97 subdivision 4 - governance and oversight of grants