UNIFORM GUIDANCE OVERVIEW
OMB Circulars Before and After A-21 Cost principles for Educational Institutions A-21 Cost principles for Educational Institutions A-110 Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Other Agreements with Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals and Other Non-Profit Organizations A-110 Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Other Agreements with Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals and Other Non-Profit Organizations A-133 Audits of States, Local Gov’ts and non-profit Organizations A-133 Audits of States, Local Gov’ts and non-profit Organizations A-87 Cost Principles for State, Local and Indian Trial Governments A-122 Cost Principles for Non-Profit Organizations A-89 Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance A-102 Grants and Cooperative Agreements with State and Local Governments A-50 Audit Followup Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards
Important Dates Applicable to new awards and new funding increments issued on and after December 26, 2014 UG is actually guidance to agencies and each agency must submit a draft implementation by June 26, 2014 We expect to see Final Agency implementations some time before or on December 26 Project will not be “done” by December 26, agency implementations and further OMB clarifications will necessitate further review and changes
Issues of Interest Conflict of Interest. This is new section and it is not clear if this means investigator COI or Purchasing COI Program Income. Not clear how this relates to royalty income – 326 Procurement Standards. It is unclear what type of documentation will be necessary for purchases between $3,001 and $150, Internal Controls. Many references to internal controls
Issues of Interest Equipment. New terminology and requirement for additional information in property records Subrecipient and contractor determinations. May require documentation of decision to use one or the other Requirements for pass-through entities. Requirements for subrecipient monitoring may require additional documentation of risk assessment of each entity, review of financial and programmatic reports, audit follow up
Issues of Interest Closeouts. Concern that there will be less flexibility in meeting the 90 day closeout requirement Cost accounting standards and disclosure statement. CAS still applies. Prior approval. Many references to written prior agency approval Note: Some active awards will be under old guidance, some under new during a transition period
Positive Changes Notice of funding opportunities. Announcements must include certain minimum information and should be available for at least 30 days Performance measurement. Clarification received that standard progress reports, such as the RPPR, are acceptable methods to document performance on research awards Cost sharing or matching. Voluntary cost sharing committed in the proposal is not expected and cannot be used during merit review
Positive Changes Electronic records are acceptable Negotiated F&A rate must be used by federal agencies unless required to do otherwise by statute or regulation or approval of agency head; if the subrecipient has a federally negotiated rate, the sub must include that rate [ (a)(4)], if it does not, we may use 10%
Potential Opportunities Direct costs. Although salaries of administrative and clerical staff are still normally to be treated as indirect, there is new language that may offer flexibility regarding when it may be appropriate to charge as direct Compensation – personal services. New language allows some flexibility in documenting personnel expenses (including faculty) Materials and supplies costs, including costs of computing devices. May allow some flexibility to charge computing devices to grants.
University of Kentucky Plan Steering Committee Eric Monday, Executive VP for Finance for Finance and Administration Lisa Cassis, Interim Vice President for Research Provost Office Representative Working Group Co-Chaired by Jennifer Miles, Director Sponsored Projects Accounting and Deborah Davis, Associate VP for Research, Director Office of Sponsored Projects Administration Includes faculty, associate deans for research, center director, college level business officer, directors of administrative units affected by UG (HR, Purchasing, Risk Management, General Accounting, Legal Counsel, Graduate School, Accounts Payable…..) And co-chairs are consulting with Subject Matter Experts not on the Working Group
Working Group Responsibilities/Timeline Compare new and old guidance Identify UK policies and procedures that comply with old and identify necessary changes Look for opportunities to be less restrictive Draft changes to policies and procedures Prepare education and communication plan to disseminate to campus Provide education May 2014 June 2014 July – September 2014 September - October 2014 October – December 2014
Communication/Feedback Town Hall general campus briefings Faculty meetings Webinars sponsored by professional groups Provost Budget Officers Existing Listservs Website
Resources/Information Uniform Guidance Federal Register Announcement Chief Financial Officers Council (COFAR) Includes FAQs UK Uniform Guidance webpage