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Dear Community Stakeholders:
AmeriCorps is initiating its FY 2021 Payment Integrity Information Act (PIIA), formerly the Improper Payments Elimination and Recovery Improvement Act (IPERIA), assessment within the next two weeks. The federal IPERIA law requires AmeriCorps to report improper payment estimates in susceptible programs. More information about IPERIA can be found at https://paymentaccuracy.gov/.
To conduct the payment integrity assessment, AmeriCorps’ Office of the Chief Risk Officer (OCRO) will conduct a multi-stage data collection process, with grantees randomly selected for the assessment. Grantees included in the assessment are required to submit supporting documentation for selected transactions and can expect to receive multiple requests for documentation over the next several months. The assessment is conducted in two phases. More information about the second phase will be available in the May-June timeframe.
Grantees selected for testing will receive a first request email message next week from your program specific email address: AmeriCorps State and National (2021IPERIAASN@cns.gov), FGP (2021IPERIAFGP@cns.gov), RSVP (2021IPERIARSVP@cns.gov), and SCP (2021IPERIASCP@cns.gov). AmeriCorps wants to ensure delivery to the proper recipients. We ask that you reply to the first request message with any additional points of contact that need to be included in the correspondence.
AmeriCorps is deeply committed to continued financial accountability and is treating grantee non-responsiveness to the payment integrity assessment requests very seriously. If you do not respond to a payment integrity request, your grant funds may be placed on manual hold[1] pending the resolution of the request. We will work with you to the extent possible for extensions and flexibilities especially in these challenging times.
AmeriCorps is committed to continuous improvement for payment integrity related communications. We hope this will improve process awareness, response rates, and the overall quality of responses. Our communication strategy includes timely reminders, descriptive follow-up requests, and ongoing training opportunities. Additionally, AmeriCorps’ payment integrity analysts are always available to provide technical assistance calls for process clarification to grantees who are selected as part of the payment integrity process. If you have questions or would like to request a technical assistance call, please email IPERIAHelpDesk@cns.gov.
As always, thank you for your commitment to national service!
Jill Graham
Acting Chief Risk Officer
AmeriCorps
[1] When a manual hold is placed on your account, your grant funds cannot be drawn. The record of a manual hold is shown for seven (7) years.
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