Companion Guide to Video August 2012

www.fhwa.dot.gov/federal-aidessentials

The Transparency Act ensures that the public can 

access information on all entities and 

organizations receiving Federal funds. The act 

gives the public the ability to identify all Federal 

awards and analyze spending trends on the 

searchable Web site—www.USASpending.gov. 

The USASpending Web site collects data on 

contracts, grants, loans, and other types of 

spending and allows the public to search the data. 

Before October 2010, the Web site only included 

data on awards made to prime contractors and 

prime grant awardees. Now, the Web site includes 

data on subawards in excess of $25,000 and, in 

some instances, executive compensation. 

Let's look at the subaward reporting 

process, along with your agency's 

responsibilities for complying with 

requests for information.

Typically, the Federal Highway Administration 

awards the State department of transportation, the 

State DOT, a Federal-aid highway program grant. 

The State DOT as the prime grant awardee enters 

into an agreement with a local public agency (LPA)

to perform the grant activities. This agreement is 

referred to as a subaward.

As the prime grant awardee, the State DOT has the 

added responsibility for recording the subaward –

along with your agency’s name, the amount of the 

award, and your location – into one of the systems 

that contributes to the USASpending Web site. 

There are some instances that require reporting the 

names of and compensation for the agency’s top 

five most highly compensated executives on 

USASpending.gov, even when this information is 

available directly from your State.

Finance

Administrative Requirements

Transparency Act Subaward Reporting

An overview of the information a Federal-aid recipient must 

provide the public
Federal-aid Essentials for Local Public Agencies

These reporting requirements are triggered when:

• Your agency receives 80 percent or more 

and $25 million or more of its gross annual 

revenues from Federal awards 

• The public does not have access to the 

information through the Securities and 

Exchange Commission or Internal 

Revenue Service

If your agency meets these criteria, the State DOT 

will need to collect executive compensation 

information from your agency.

By law, as the prime grant awardee, your State 

DOT has only 30 days after the end of the month 

in which the subaward was issued to comply with 

the Transparency Act. To allow them to meet the 

reporting requirements, as a sub-awardee it’s your 

agency’s responsibility to respond quickly to an 

information request from the State DOT.

To see what has already been 

reported on your agency, visit the

Transparency Act Web site at 

USASpending.gov.
Federal-aid Essentials for Local Public Agencies

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• Guidance on Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act 

Subaward Reporting System

https://www.fsrs.gov/

• Link to USA Spending.gov Web site and information on subaward reporting

http://www.usaspending.gov/sub-award-documents