B. Certified Assurances

The OCJP application consists of narrative application and budget. All applicants must agree to comply with special conditions and/or certifications provided at the time of the grant contract award which may include the following federal assurances and certifications:

Debarment and Suspension Certification: This certification must be submitted with any signed grant agreement. This government-wide common rule for debarment and suspension provides guidance or requirements that subrecipients shall meet in order to receive Federal funds.
Lobbying Certification: Federal funds may not be used by any subrecipient at any tier, either directly or indirectly, to support or oppose the enactment, repeal, modification or adoption of any law, regulation, or policy, at any level of government. See 2 C.F.R. § 200.450 (Lobbying) for the complete regulation.
This Lobbying certification must be submitted with any signed grant agreement. The Department of Justice's (DOJ) codification of the government-wide common rule for restrictions on lobbying, 28 CFR Part 69, provides guidance on requirements that recipients shall meet in order to receive Federal funds.

The following restrictions on lobbying are applicable to all subrecipients (in addition to the restrictions imposed by recent revisions to 18 U.S.C. Sec 1913). Interim Final Guidance for New Restrictions on Lobbying was published in the Federal Register in December 1989. The Lobbying Disclosure Act of 1995 included amendments that have an impact on the guidance provided in 1989. Per 31 USC §1352, the restrictions on lobbying are as follows:
To summarize, the common rule for lobbying requires certification that subrecipients certify they will comply with the lobbying common rule.
1. No federally-appropriated funds may be expended by the recipient of a Federal award, cooperative agreement, or contract to pay a person for influencing or attempting to influence an officer or employee of any agency, a member of Congress, an officer or employee of Congress, or an employee of a member of Congress in connection with any of the following covered Federal actions: the awarding of any Federal contract, the making of any Federal grant, the entering into of any cooperative agreement, and the extension, continuation, renewal, amendment, or modification of any Federal contract, grant, or cooperative agreement. STOP & SASP funds only: The subrecipient may, however, use federal funds to collaborate with and provide information to federal, state, local, tribal and territorial public officials and agencies to develop and implement policies or model codes designed to reduce or eliminate domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking (as those are defined in 42 U.S.C. 13925 (a)) when such collaboration and provision of information is consistent with the activities otherwise authorized under the grant program.
2. Each person who requests or receives from an agency an initial Federal contract, award, or cooperative agreement (including subcontracts, subawards, and contracts under cooperative agreements) exceeding $100,000 shall file with that agency a certification regarding lobbying. The certification shall be submitted to the agency making the award. Each person is certifying that:
  - They have not made, and will not make, any payment for a lobbying activity
  - If any non-Federal funds have been paid or will be paid to any person, they will complete and submit a "Disclosure of Lobbying Activities" form (Disclosure Form).
  - The language of this certification will be included in their award documents for all subawards at all tiers (including subcontracts, subawards and contracts under awards, and cooperative agreements), and all subrecipients shall certify and disclose accordingly.
  - Each person, if applicable, shall submit the Disclosure Form to the agency making their award. The subrecipient is responsible for reporting lobbying activities of its employees if the employee's tenure is less than 130 working days within one year immediately preceding the date of the subrecipient's application or proposal submission.
  - A subrecipient, who requests or receives Federal funds, shall be required to file with OCJP a certification and a Disclosure Form, if applicable. All certifications shall be maintained by the agency making the award and all Disclosure Forms shall be forwarded from tier to tier until received by the Federal agency making the award. That agency shall forward all Disclosure Forms to the awarding agency. The Disclosure Form shall contain the following information:
    Name and address of reporting entity
    
    Federal program name;
    
    Federal award number
    
    Federal award amount; and
    
    Name and address of lobbying registrant.
3. The above requirements DO NOT apply to Federally recognized Indian tribes or tribal organizations, or any other Indian organization with respect to expenditures specifically permitted by other Federal law.
4. Each person shall file a Disclosure Form at the end of each calendar quarter in which there occurs any event that requires disclosure or that materially affects the accuracy of the information contained in any Disclosure Form previously filed by such persons. Examples of such events are:
  - A cumulative increase of $25,000 or more in the amount paid or expected to be paid for influencing or attempting to influence a covered Federal action;
  - A change in the person(s) or individual(s) influencing or attempting to influence a covered Federal action; or
  - A change in the officer(s), employee(s), or member(s) contacted to influence or attempt to influence a covered Federal action.
5. Penalties and enforcement of lobbying restrictions shall be as follows:
  - Any person who makes an expenditure prohibited by the New Restrictions on Lobbying shall be subject to a civil penalty of not less than $10,000 and not more than $100,000 for each such expenditure.
  - Any person who fails to file or amend the Disclosure Form to be filed or amended, if required, shall be subject to a civil penalty of not less than $10,000 and not more than $100,000 for each such failure.
Non-Discrimination Certification: The potential subrecipient must assure and certify that they comply with all applicable civil rights non-discrimination requirements as set forth in the application packet. All subgrantee recipients (regardless of type of entity or amount awarded) are subject to prohibitions against discrimination in any program or activity, and must take reasonable steps to provide meaningful access for persons with limited English proficiency. If a subrecipient makes a false certification, the subrecipient is subject to suspension, termination, and debarment. The government-wide common rule for non-discriminatory practices, 28 CFR Part 42, Subpart D , provides guidance on requirements that subrecipients shall meet in order to receive Federal funds or, in the case of a recipient who is an individual, certify to OCJP that his or her conduct of award activity will be delivered in an equitable manner to all segments of the service population.
Sub-recipient agencies:
1. Certify that the agency will maintain data to ensure that services are provided in an equitable manner to all segments of the service population and;
2. Certify that the person in this agency or unit of government who is responsible for reporting formal and informal civil rights complaints and/or findings of discrimination will submit these complaints and/or findings, if any, to the Tennessee Office of Criminal Justice Programs within the Department of Finance and Administration within 45 days of the complaint/finding, and/or if the finding occurred prior to the grant award beginning date, within 45 days of the grant award beginning date. The notification to OCJP can be made by submitting the Civil Rights Complaint Notification Form to OCJP.
3. Certify that Services to Limited-English-Proficient (LEP) Persons comply with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act and the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act.
  - Subrecipients are required to take reasonable steps to ensure that LEP persons have meaningful access to their programs.
  - Meaningful access may entail providing language assistance services, including interpretation and translation services, where necessary
  - Subrecipients are encouraged to consider the need for language services for LEP persons served or encountered both in developing their proposals and budgets and in conducting their programs and activities
  - Subrecipients must document their process to provide meaningful access for LEP persons
  - Resources available for meaningful access are in Appendix O: Language Access & Culturally Competent Staff and http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/about/ocr/lep.htm .
Equal Employment Opportunity Plan (EEOP) Certification : This certification must be submitted with any signed grant agreement . All awards from the Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) are subject to the EEOP requirements; many awards from OJP, including awards from the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), and the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) are subject to the EEOP requirements; and many awards from the Office on Violence Against Women (OVW) are also subject to the EEOP requirements. If you have any questions as to whether your award from the U.S. Department of Justice is subject to the Safe Streets Act’s EEOP requirements, please consult your grant award document, your program manager, or the Office for Civil Rights (OCR). See 28 CFR, Subpart E.

Sub-recipient Agencies: Certify that the agency will register within 60 days of award start date with the Office of Justice Programs, Office for Civil Rights online Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) Program Reporting Tool to submit the information requested and, if required, create and submit an EEO Utilization Report. The agency can access the tool at: https://ocr-eeop.ncjrs.gov.

If you have questions about registering , completing or submitting the Certification Form, please contact the OCJP Assistant Director; QA or the Office for Civil Rights, Office of Justice Programs, 810 7th Street, NW, Washington, DC 20531 (Telephone: (202) 307-0690 and TTY: (202) 307-2027).
High-Risk Designation Reporting Certification (completed by all regardless of current designation)
The Office of Criminal Justice Programs (OCJP) subrecipients of Department of Justice (DOJ) funds are required to disclose whether the subrecipient is designated "high risk" by a federal grant-making agency. If the subrecipient is designated "high risk" by a federal grant-making agency, currently or at any time during the course of the period of performance under this award, the subrecipient must disclose that fact and certain related information to Office of Criminal Justice Programs (OCJP) by emailing the Program Manager.

For purposes of this disclosure, high risk includes any status under which a federal awarding agency provides additional oversight due to the recipient's past performance, or other programmatic or financial concerns with the recipient. The recipient's disclosure must include the following:
1. The federal awarding agency that currently designates the recipient high risk,
2. The date the recipient was designated high risk,
3. The high-risk point of contact at that federal awarding agency (name, phone number, and email address), and
4. The reasons for the high-risk status, as set out by the federal awarding agency.

The recipient agrees to comply with any additional requirements that may be imposed by the OCJP during the period of performance for this award, if the recipient is designated as "high- risk" for purposes of the DOJ high-risk grantee list.