3015.81—General.

(a) Except as provided in paragraphs (d) and (e) of this section, recipients shall use only the forms specified in §§ 3015.82 through 3015.85, and such other forms as may be authorized by OMB for:
(1) Submitting grant financial reports to awarding agencies, or
(2) Requesting grant payments when letters of credit or automatic prescheduled Treasury check advances are not used.
(b) Recipients shall follow all applicable standard instructions issued by OMB for use in connection with the forms specified in §§ 3015.82 through 3015.85. Awarding agencies may not issue substantive supplementary instructions that are inconsistent with this subpart or impose additional requirements on recipients without the approval of O&F and OMB. However, awarding agencies may shade out or instruct the recipient to disregard any line item that the awarding agency finds unnecessary for its decision-making purposes.
(c) Recipients shall not be required to submit more than one original and two copies of the forms required under this subpart.
(d) Awarding agencies may provide computer outputs to recipients to expedite or contribute to the accuracy of reporting. Awarding agencies may accept the required information from recipients in machine readable form or computer printouts instead of prescribed formats.
(e) When an awarding agency determines that a recipient's accounting system does not meet the standards for financial management systems contained in Subpart H of this part, it may require more frequent financial reports or more detail (or both) upon written notice to the recipient (without regard to § 3015.4) until such time as the standards are met.
(f) Awarding agencies may waive any report required by this subpart, if not needed.
(g) Awarding agencies may extend the due date for any financial report upon receiving a justified request from the recipient. The recipient should not wait until the due date if an extension is to be requested, but should submit the request as soon as the need becomes known. Failure by a recipient to submit a report by its due date may result in severe enforcement actions by USDA. These may include withholding of further grant payments, suspension or termination of the grant, etc. Therefore recipients are urged to submit reports on time.