Stand-Up State Expenditure Plan
On 28 June 2017, the Gulf Consortium Board of Directors approved the development of a Draft Stand-Up State Expenditure Plan (SSEP) that would propose the administrative and financial infrastructure deemed necessary by the RESTORE Council (Council) for the implementation of Florida’s State Expenditure Plan (SEP), i.e., the Consortium’s Pot 3 Project List. The Board’s action relating to a separate Stand-Up SEP (SSEP) was intended to achieve two outcomes:
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Ensure that the Consortium would institute the appropriate financial and administrative controls to accept and manage federal grant funds from Council; and
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Accelerate the overall schedule of the SEP implementation by several months by not needing to wait on Council’s approval of the SEP before submitting a separate implementation grant request for stand-up activities
The Board recognized that such stand-up activities needed to be implemented regardless, and that sooner was preferred to later. Further, the Board recognized that the costs for developing the SSEP could be addressed through the approval of Pre-Award Costs by Council. Approval of the eligibility of the SSEP for Pre-Award costs was requested from RESTORE Council, and approval was obtained on September 7, 2017. As a result, the costs of preparing the draft and final SSEP will be reimbursable under a planning assistance grant to be submitted upon Council approval of the SSEP.