February 25, 2014Research Administrators Workgroup

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Agenda

Introductions

Announcements / Updates (Raquel Espinosa)  

FY13 A-133 Audit (Rhonda Lowe)

Pre-Award update (Chanda Robe)

InfoEd Deliverables and Microstrategy Enhancements (Raquel Espinosa)

Q & A – All

Announcements/Updates

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NIH Cap Increase

Executive Level II was increased by 1 percent from $179,700 to $181,500 effective January 12, 2014

Source:

http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT-OD-14-043.html

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K awards

• K award applicants should contact the Registrar’s Office during the following stages:• Pre-award proposal and• Just in Time (JIT)

To avoid under-estimating salary costs, budget should include a plan to adjust salaries during the project.

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Research Access SOP

Research Access SOP

 Access to research buildings to be requested by hiring department by submission of a Facilities work order: http://phsmclgpm2/GpmWoRequest.aspx

 

Under “Description of Work” provide employee ID #, name, building(s) and room #’s the individual needs access

 ID badge with approved access can be picked up once the individual attends orientation

 

Access will only be granted to individuals upon CORI clearance

 

 

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Continuation- Research Access SOP

Animal Care Facilities Access

MRC: requested to Security by ACF manager

 

Oaks: access will be requested by PI

 

Access to ACF’s will be granted to individuals upon approval on IAUCUC protocol and completion of animal training provided by Facility Manager.

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McL Lockbox

All checks should be routed to:

McLean Research Finance

PO Box 414248

Boston, MA 02241-4248

Payable to: McLean Hospital

Majority of checks are directed to the lockbox which is the best practice. Research Administration should no longer handle checks to avoid delays and reduce the risk of mishandling

FY13 A-133 Audit Rhonda Lowe

FY13 A-133 Audit Update

DRAWFebruary 25, 2014

Audit Scope Selection of 34 research grants - this includes review of award documents*,

PI interviews based on detailed Compliance Controls Questionnaires and SAS99 Fraud Inquiries.

Compliance controls testing including - Activities Allowed or Unallowed Allowable Costs/Cost Principles Cash Management Davis-Bacon Act Effort/Cost Sharing Eligibility Equipment/Real Property Acquisition and Management Period of Availability of Federal funding Procurement including Debarment and Suspension Program Income Reporting/FSRs, FFATA & ARRA Subrecipient Monitoring Special Tests and Provisions

*Includes the initial Proposal, JIT, original and current year NOA and IRB/IACUC approvals.

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Audit Scope

Direct cost selections for payroll, equipment, travel, subcontracts, supplies, consulting and patient care.

Core Facility selections Review of the 5 year P&L trend Use of current year rates within the invoicing and revenue

recognition procedures

Beginning is FY13, IHP and Cooley Dickinson rolled into the PHS consolidated report.

Other Programs were not tested in FY13 but will be included in the testing for FY14.

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2013-001 Travel

Condition - of the 200 direct costs tested, PwC noted a $495 hotel deposit which was charged twice to a grant.

Cause - the charge was prepaid with a travel card and charged to the grant. The hotel receipt was included on an expense report where the hotel deposit was not coded as a prepaid expense.

Recommendation - management should review all travel expenditures incurred by the department in question to assess federal allowability and adherence to PHS travel policies. Additionally, management should emphasize the need to be diligent in entering and reviewing travel charges, to ensure individuals entering and reviewing travel expense reports are aware of the importance of properly charging travel expenses to federal grants.

Corrective Action - will include 1) two levels of review of all travel charged to the PI’s federal grants and 2) evaluation of existing controls applicable to processing travel expenses including the continued use of corporate cards for travel on research funds.

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2013-002 Financial Reporting

Condition - of the 50 Financial Status Reports (FSRs) tested, PwC identified one instance in which $137,000 of direct and indirect expenses were reported that had not yet been incurred and therefore did not agree with the accounting records.

Cause - the FSR was completed based on future commitments for purchased service agreements. The invoices were assumed to be available as of the reporting date, and the amounts reported were based on payment schedules in the agreements; however, the expenses had not been incurred, resulting in the submission of an inaccurate FSR. 

Recommendation - PwC recommends that management emphasize the need for standardized reconciliation processes and controls for FSR reporting across all entities. Standard reconciliation to the underlying accounting records should be clear and concise, and support for reconciling items should be readily available. Management should emphasize that expenses should only be included in the FSR if the expenses have been incurred.

Corrective Action - management will reinforce the reporting standards outlined in the PHS Financial Reporting policy and related SOP.

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Current Status of Prior Year Findings

Management’s corrective actions in response to prior year findings from fiscal year 2012 were fully implemented during fiscal year 2013.

There were no exceptions noted in the current year testing of equipment inventories, Davis-Bacon, period of availability of funds or FFATA reporting.

In fiscal 2011, Partners HealthCare identified a small subset of research and development federal awards at The General Hospital where it was unclear whether the on-site or off-site indirect cost rate applied because the research occurred in multiple sites.  Management has undertaken an extensive review of these grants. In fiscal 2013, in consultation with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the General Hospital returned a portion of indirect cost reimbursement at the on-site rate for research performed prior to fiscal 2011.

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Filing Status

PwC issued the report February 20, 2014 Data Collection Form and Clearinghouse upload must be

completed and certified within 30 days of the PwC issue date. Results will be available for Federal Agency review in March.

Report will be available through the Partners Home Page Look for the announcement in the next RM Message.

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Pre-Award updateChanda Robe

Pre-Award UpdatesChanda Robe

Pre-Award Grant AdministratorFebruary 25, 2014

Updates in Process• McLean Hospital Research Internet

• Institutional Facts Webpage- working with the IT team• McLean Hospital- Full name and Address• Signing Official (Person to be contacted on SF424)- Pre-Award Grant

Administrator, Chanda Robe• Authorized Representative- Raquel I. Espinosa, Director Research

Administration

Updates• Statement of Intent/Statement of Work

• Revised with noticeable changes.• PDF document, includes a line for the Duns and Congressional district

number.• Statement of Work Example

• Compares a good statement of work against a bad statement of work.

• More details the better.

InfoEd Proposal Development (PD)• Partners Coversheet

• Internal form is no longer required for progress reports or grant proposals because PD eliminated the need of these paper forms.

• Uploading DocumentsOptional to upload Required to uploadParent Announcement RFA, RFP, Foundation & unique

opportunity numbers Partners Budget Template Proposal (one pdf file) Statement of Intent/Work (if

applicable)

PI Eligibility (if applicable) Chief Scientific Officer’s Approval for

proposals that are routed past the 10 business day internal deadline (if applicable)

Electronic Conflict of Interest (eCOI)• Generated for Primary Mentors within Partners.

• List personnel, $0 salary and 1% effort. • How to check and see if it did generate. If not, then contact the InfoEd

helpdesk esubmissions@partners.org

• Why do we do this? • Workaround, because without the primary mentor then the project wouldn’t be

possible. This identifies them as part of the design, conduct and reporting of research (DCR).

Institutional Support Letter

• Signed by Dr. Joe Coyle, Chief Scientific Officer (CSO)• Direct requests to :

• Debbie Johnson, djohnson@mclean.harvard.edu ext. 2101

• Template- Letter will be placed on McLean Research Internet.• If Letter isn’t available a direct email can be sent to Debbie

providing the following information:• Title of Project/Grant• Job Title/Rank at Harvard Medical School• Job Title/Rank at McLean Hospital• McLean’s Internal Deadline• Sponsors (External) Deadline (ie. NARSAD, NIH)

Successful Grant Submissions• February Deadlines

Grant Mechanisms Submissions

R01s 13

Ks 2

Progress Reports 8

R21s, R21/R33, R01, R03 14

Foundations, subcontracts, JIT, NARSADs

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Total 61

Conclusions

Partners Research Management

• Attending Pre-Award Team meetings lead by Susan Roudebush and David Waldron• Valuable resource. • Adopt more of the pre-award

practices. • Reviewing grant applications-

attaching the initial draft corrections to the InfoEd record, uploading final era commons converted application, using the InfoEd activity log.

Helpful Links• eCOI for Department Administrators • eCOI for Principal Investigators • McLean Research Internet

• References• http://footage.shutterstock.com/clip-818638-stock-footage-computer-animation-s

howing-d-man-with-team-work-puzzle.html Accessed 2/24/2014

Any questions please contact:Chanda RobePre-Award Grant Administratorcrobe@partners.org 617-855-2906

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QUESTIONS?

Contact: Raquel Espinosa

respinosa@partners.org

617-855-2868