Federal Funding for Agreements

1. Federal FundingforAgreements

2. State Aid (SALT) prepares the Federal Agreements and the Amendments for • Force Account (FA) • Right of Way (ROW) • Preliminary Engineering (PE) • Construction Engineering (CE) • Advance Construction (AC) - used when the city wants to build a project before the federal fund are available. The city agrees to cover all costs until the project is converted to federal funds. • State Aid Finance (SAF) sets up the encumbrances in FCRB (Federal County Road & Bridge – accounting system we use for federal project) and makes the payments.

3. For SALT’s information on the Agreement Process go to www.dot.state.mn.us/stateaid/sa_agreements_information.html

4. To receive payment for a DCP project or an agreement which has federal funds AC’dyou must send in an Advance Resolution – Federal Project which can be found on our website. http://www.dot.state.mn.us/safinance/forms/msas_federal_project_advance_resolution.pdf In this resolution you agree that you are prepared to proceed with the construction of the project through the use of an advance from the Municipal State Aid Street Fund to supplement the available funds in your State Aid Construction Account. The project must be eligible for State Aid funds to use this resolution.

5. After the agreements for CE, PE, ROW or FA has been signed and executed, the encumbrance has been setup, and work has been completed you may send in a request for payment. The request must be signed, dated and approved by the Engineer, District State Aid Engineer (DSAE) & SALT before a payment can be made by SAF.

6. To verify that the agreement has been set up in FCRB you can run the Project Setup report from our website. • http://www.dot.state.mn.us/safinance/ • Select SAAS Reports, then enter password • Select Federal Aid Projects and Agreement Reports • FCRB Project Setup • Enter your Project Number in XXX-XXX-XXX format and View Report

11. After you have verified that the agreement has been setup and it looks correct, you can enter the information for your 1st pay request by going to Federal Aid Agreement Payment Request from SAAS Web Reporting

14. Things to remember when filling out request • Pay Request # should be the next sequential # after the last Pay Request #. • Work Completed Through Date must be before the date prepared. Make sure this matches the date on your backup documents. • Enter all Total Certified To Date Amounts including zero dollars. If the certified amount is the same as the previous amount it still needs to be entered. The Total Certified is 100% of the costs incurred. The system will calculate the correct amount by multiplying it by the federal percentage eligible.

15. Things to remember when filling out request (continued) • Once you have reached 90% of the agreement amount State Aid will withhold the remaining amount until the Auditors have done their Final Audit and State Aid has signed it. • Check the Final Voucher box if this is the final request. • Include all backup documentation (invoices, timesheets, cancelled checks for ROW & anything else that documents the funds spent). If documentation is missing the auditors will cite and you will be required to return the funds to us.

16. After running the report, print out the 1st page, sign and date the pay request, and send to the DSAE with the supporting documentation. After the DSAE has approved the request he will pass it on to SALT for their approval, then SALT sends it to SAF for payment.

18. During the life of an agreement there may be amendments that are executed through SALT to increase federal funds. Once these have been processed they will be added to your Project Setup. If you notice that it hasn’t been added or if you have any questions call Cindy Degener at 651-366-4850 Or Lynnette Roshell at651-366-3822

19. Federal FundingforConstruction Contracts

20. Delegated Contract Process (DCP) A DCP Agreement is required for agencies administering a Federal Construction Contract. The DCP Agreement covers all Federally funded Construction Contracts with State Aid while the agreement is active. The DCP Agreement is valid until there is either a change or one party cancels the contract. Approval of each construction project is required first!

21. Prior approval must be received before expenses are incurred, or they will not be reimbursed. Federal Funds are released after the expense is incurred. Sponsoring agencies must be financially able to make the contract payments. The State Aid Finance website has some excellent resources for a DCP Project. http://www.dot.state.mn.us/safinance/

30. We require you to maximize the Federal Funds on the project. Many DCP Payment Requests and State Aid Payment Requests need to be revised because Federal funds are not maximized, this delays your payment. FCRB (Federal County Road and Bridge) is the system where DCP Payment Requests are processed. FCRB has a “Bid Cap”. This is not a true cap, but it is where the system stops paying. The “Project Cap” is the total Federal Funds available if you have sufficient construction costs.

31. FEDERAL FUND CAP BID CAP

32. Review the Participation Distribution if the Bid Cap is less than the Federal Fund Cap – be sure to check the actual eligible costs of the project at the time you final the project. If the actual eligible costs are greater than the bid cap in FCRB you must submit an encumbrance increase. On the previous Participation Distribution the Federal Cap is $800,000.00 – but the Federal Amount at Bid (or Bid Cap) is $718,063.20 – the system stops paying at this amount unless you submit an encumbrance increase.

33. Total Eligible Costs are $998,000.00 * 80% = $798,400.00 This is more than the bid cap, you will need to submit enough in extra costs to encumber the additional Federal Funds. • Documents you can submit for an encumbrance increase are: • Supplemental Agreements • Change Orders • Work Orders • Overrun • When completing supporting documentation it is important to indicate the category on each document.

34. If costs are split between categories it must be documented clearly either in dollars or a percentage for each category. All documents must be signed off by the DSAE. The encumbrance increase can be sent in before the final or with the final. If the encumbrance increase is sent in with the final payment, do not usethe numbers on the DCP Final to complete your State Aid Payment Request. Use the ACTUAL costs to complete your State Aid Payment Request.

35. If all the available Federal Funds were set-up at the beginning of the project or if all the Federal Funds have been paid, then the numbers on the DCP Payment Request can be used to complete the State Aid Payment Request. It is a requirement of the DCP Process that all projects with multiple categories, must attach a breakdown of the par and non-par costs in the format of the original bid estimate for both partial and final payments.No payment request will be processed without this documentation.

38. DCP Partial Payment Requests can be e-mailed directly to Candy Harding and a copy to the DSAE. All DCP Final Payment Requests must go to the DSAE with the required documentation. If you have any questions regarding the DCP Project Set-Up or on the DCP Payment Process, please contact Candy Harding. Candice.Harding@state.mn.us Phone (651) 366-4891