The Office of Management and
Budget’s (OMB) New Uniform
Guidance
Informational Session for
UH Faculty and Staff
November 18,2014
Agenda
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Background
Application
Pre-award changes
Cost Principle changes
Post-award changes
Q&A
Background
Primary Objective:
Reduce both administrative burden and
risk of waste, fraud and abuse for Federal
awards.
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Background – Reform Timeline
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Background
• 2 CFR 200 (Uniform Guidance) – replaces
OMB Circulars A-21, A-110, and A-133
• Though parts still live on:
– Subpart C (Pre-award)
– Subpart D (Post-award)
– Subpart E (Cost Principles)
– Subpart F (Audit)
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Application
• New awards issued on or after 12/26/14
• Increments to existing awards issued after
12/26/14, if Federal awarding agency
modifies terms and conditions (T&C)
• Existing Federal awards that do not receive
incremental funding with new T&C will
continue to be governed by original award
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Application
• Grants and Cooperative Agreements
• Contracts follow Federal Acquisition
Regulations (FAR) and UG for cost
principles – (e.g. use of electronic records
not explicitly formalized in FAR)
NOTE: As always, award terms and
conditions prevail over UG
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Pre-award Changes
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Simplify Applications
Give More Time to Apply
Clarify Entitlement to F&A
Voluntary Cost Sharing
Simplify Applications
Federal awarding agency must:
• display standard information on OMBdesignated government-wide website
• use OMB approved application forms –
ORS will notify once forms are available
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Give More Time to Apply
• Funding opportunities must be open for at
least 60 calendar days
• Federal awarding agency may decide to
post funding opportunities for less than 60
calendar days but never less than 30
calendar days, unless exigent
circumstances arise and are approved by
the agency head
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Clarify Entitlement to F&A
UH should receive Full F&A as a prime or
subrecipient unless:
• prohibited by Federal law for a class of
Federal awards or a single Federal award or
• approved by a Federal awarding agency
Head - OMB’s intention is for all sponsors
to recognize negotiated rates
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Voluntary Cost Sharing
• not expected
• cannot be used as a factor during the merit
review unless criteria for consideration and
award determination factors are explicitly
included in the funding announcement
• highly discouraged by UH if no incentives
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Cost Principle Changes
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Admin/clerical support
Computing devices
Conferences
Participant support costs
Publication and printing costs
Cost Principle Changes
• Terminal Vacation Leave Rate
• Visa Costs
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Admin/clerical support
• No longer need to prove “major project”
status (as described in A-110); must show
it is “integral” and can be specifically
identified to project
• Must be explicitly budgeted or have prior
written approval
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Computing devices
• Such as laptops, netbooks, smart phones, &
tablet computers – hardware costs
• Must be essential, though not solely dedicated,
to the performance of a Federal award
• OMB expects UH policies (E2.214 Security and
Protection of Sensitive Information) on
safeguarding the devices and data are followed
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Conferences
• Allowable only when purpose is for
dissemination of technical information
beyond UH and necessary and reasonable
for successful performance under a Federal
award
– Interpret “beyond UH” = collaborators,
beneficiaries, and general public
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Participant support costs
• Allowable with prior approval on
conferences or training projects, not
research
• MTDC exclusion for participant support
costs applies only to conference grants or
training grants
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Publication and printing costs
• Now can be incurred outside the
performance period of the award
• Costs must be charged prior to closeout of
award
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Terminal vacation leave rate
• Cannot charge last account; must be either
indirect costs or via fringe benefit rate
• Change in Federal regulations means RCUH
will now have to create a terminal vacation
leave rate like UH
• UH will need to make its rate uniform for
all funds
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Visa Costs
• For projects that need skills from foreign persons, short-term visa
fees if applicable can be proposed as direct costs
• Criteria for directly charging of visa costs must be:
– Critical and necessary for the conduct of the project;
– Allowable under the applicable cost principles;
– Consistent with UH cost accounting practice and policy (i.e.,
handling of short-term visa costs for non-extramural activities);
and
– Meet the definition of direct cost in the applicable cost principles
Examples include TN, J-1, O, and H-1B visas
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Post-award changes
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Reporting
Prior approvals
Record Retention
Subrecipient Monitoring
Reporting
• Requirement to relate performance to
financial information has not changed
• NEW: Use of OMB-approved governmentwide standard report formats such as
Research Performance Progress Report
(RPPR), Federal Financial Report (FFR) ORS will notify if any additional changes
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Financial Reporting – Required
Certifications
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Old Language:
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OMB Circular A-21 § K. Certification
of charges:
…"I certify that all expenditures
reported (or payment requested)
are for appropriate purposes and
in accordance with the provisions
of the application and award
documents."
New Language:
‘‘By signing this report, I certify to the best of
my knowledge and belief that the report is
true, complete, and accurate, and the
expenditures, disbursements and cash
receipts are for the purposes and objectives
set forth in the terms and conditions of the
Federal award. I am aware that any false,
fictitious, or fraudulent information, or the
omission of any material fact, may subject me
to criminal, civil or administrative penalties
for fraud, false statements, false claims or
otherwise. (U.S. Code Title 18, Section 1001
and Title 31, Sections 3729–3730 and 3801–
3812).’’
Significantly new language required for annual and final
financial reports and invoices is shown in bold.
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Prior Approvals
Welcome changes:
• PI’s “disengagement” (v. absence) for more
than 3 months
Am I
Disengaged?
• No prior approval required for re-budget from
direct to indirect
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Prior Approvals (Cont’d)
• NEW – Prior approval required for changes
to approved cost sharing
• Issue
– Expanded authorities expire 12/26/14;
Will agencies implement Research Terms
& Conditions by then?
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Record Retention
• Allows for electronic record retention
• Federal award-related information should
be collected, transmitted and stored in
open and machine readable formats
• ORS will update related policies and
procedures
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Subrecipient Monitoring Subrecipient vs. Contractor
Determination
• Perform and document a case-by-case
determination
• Subrecipient v. Contractor Determination
Checklist available on ORS website –
required for all service or subaward
agreements
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Subrecipient Monitoring – F&A
• De minimis rate of 10% of MTDC for
subawardees that have never received a
negotiated F&A rate
• UH no longer has to negotiate rates with
subrecipients
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Subrecipient Monitoring and
Management – Fixed Price Subawards
• With prior written approval from the Federal
awarding agency, UH may provide subawards
based on fixed amounts up to the Simplified
Acquisition Threshold (currently $150,000)
• Payments based on meeting specific
requirements
• Accountability based on performance and results
• Mandatory Cost Sharing not allowed and
Voluntary Cost Sharing not encouraged
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Subrecipient Monitoring
Required Information
• Pass Through Entities (PTE) must provide
certain subaward information to the
subrecipient
• ORS developed a Subaward Information
Checklist tool for internal use - available
on ORS website
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Subrecipient Monitoring
Risk Assessment
• Risk Assessment must be performed and
documented for each subrecipient – refer
to Subrecipient Monitoring Flowchart
• ORS will perform the risk assessment and
notify the project of the risk level and
monitoring procedures – refer to
Monitoring Procedures
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Subrecipient Monitoring
Monitoring Procedures
• Invoices should be accompanied by
performance and financial reports
• Project must review the subrecipient’s
performance and financial reports in a
timely manner prior to reimbursement
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Subrecipient Monitoring – Payments
PTE must make payment
to subrecipients within
30 calendar days
after receipt of an invoice,
unless there are
outstanding performance
or financial issues.
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Subrecipient Monitoring
Tax Clearance
Subrecipient must obtain Hawaii State and
IRS Tax Clearance in accordance with HRS
§103-53. Projects should advise their
potential subrecipients to obtain tax
clearances as soon as possible (during the
proposal stage) to enable timely payments.
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Q&A
• Q: OMB is leaving it up to non-Federal entities to
decide whether it wants to manage two sets of
rules (before UG and after UG). What is UH
planning to do?
• A: For simplicity, UH intends to apply entity-wide
system changes (i.e. Effort Reporting) to all
Federal awards, effective 12/26/14.
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Q&A
• Q: Do I have to keep my old funding in a separate
account from my new funding after the UG goes
into effect?
• A: No!
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Q&A
• Q: Now that agencies are giving us more time to
apply, does that change the ORS deadline for
proposal submission?
• A: No. ORS still requests that you notify us as
soon as you intend to apply and submit the
application at least five business days prior to the
due date.
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Q&A
• Q: What happens if the Federal awarding agency
doesn’t honor the UH negotiated rate?
• A: The project should request documentation of
the Federal awarding agency head’s approval for
the lower rate. If unavailable, please notify ORS
for follow up.
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Q&A
• Q: What counts as prior approval? For example,
if I state my intention to charge a cost in my
progress report and Federal agency issues award
without mention, is that approval?
• A: It depends. Check terms & conditions or refer
questions to the Federal awarding agency.
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Q&A
• Q: A portion of the budget on an award with
Cost Sharing was deobligated during the project
period. Can Cost Sharing be reduced?
• A: Yes. With prior agency approval, Cost Shared
amounts can be proportionately reduced.
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Q&A
• Q: Are we really allowed to eliminate time and
effort reporting?
• A: Yes! (They say). However, adequate internal
controls must be in place to support
compensation for personal services charged to
the award. UH will need to evaluate before
making any revisions to our current time and
effort reporting system.
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Q&A
• Q: Should I wait until the subaward is executed
before notifying the subrecipient to obtain a
Hawaii State Tax Clearance?
• A: No! This process should be initiated at the
proposal development stage.
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Q&A
• Q: Are we allowed to make payments to a
subrecipient prior to review of the performance
and financial reports?
• A: No. As part of the required monitoring
procedures, these reports must be reviewed
prior to payment.
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Contact Information
• Dennis Nakamura, Compliance Officer
– dnakamu@hawaii.edu or 956-5893
• Dawn Kim, Compliance Manager
– dawnkim@hawaii.edu or 956-0396
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Procurement
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Grace period to July 1, 2016
General Standards
Methods of Procurement
UH – Eff. July 1, 2016, require sealed bids for
construction > $150,000 (currently $250,000)
using Federal funds
• RCUH - Update of RCUH Procurement &
Disbursing Policies posted October 29, 2014
http://www.rcuh.com/wps/portal/RCUH
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Procurement
General Standards and Methods
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Procurement - Methods
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