Amendments
When are amendments necessary or required?
Amendments are required when the scope of the program is expected to change, either to remove or add a new activity, or, grantees wish to revise amounts across major object codes, or, changes are greater than 25% or $2,500 of the approved budgeted.
Example:
Current Budget 600 Category $43,391.00
25% of $43,391.00 equals $10,847.75
*This is larger than $2500 so you work with the 25% amount option.
No amendment is necessary if you use a budgeted amount up to $52,238.75.
Adjustments to original purchase requests are allowable as long as they are approvable under Perkins law and meet your justification requirements. This would require a written (or email) pre-approval by the NDE Monitor. If the purchases will fall into a different category than originally purchased, and you need to move remaining funds from one category to the other to have enough to cover the costs, you may need to submit an amendment in GMS with the explanation.
Budget changes between categories is permissible if the changes meet the program’s plan. When adjusting funds between categories, the GMS will state a warning of “no flexibility,” if you try to apply funds to an object code with $0.00 budgeted. With an Amendment, funds can be moved into a new category that previously had none.
I need to move money because my invoice is higher than I had originally written, but everything is still budgeted under the same category. Do I need to create an amendment?
No. Not when the budget amount and the category remain the same. See question above.
Due to inclement weather, activities were cancelled and I have leftover funds in my budget. Do I need to create an amendment?
If you reallocate funds because of a cancelled event and it adds to less than 25% of the available funds AND it is used within the same category, you will not need an amendment.
Be sure to keep your NDE monitor informed of the new purchase so a cross-reference can be made on the Final Claim for Reimbursement. The best record is to add in a description of the changes within the GMS system’s Comments tab.
Several equipment purchases that were pre-approved, cost more than was budgeted for them. We have leftover funds in other budget categories. I would like to use the remaining funds and move them to Supplies to help pay the extra cost of Equipment. Is this allowable?
From a fiscal point, it is approvable if the items purchased are Perkins approvable. The amendment must support the program’s purposes and the documentation of purchases must be attached to the reimbursement request.