Contractors and Grantees

"Greater Transparency" Versus "Reduce Administrative Burden"

Government understandably wants to data-mine progress reports. The loss of Fastlane reporting, with its PDF structure, in exchange for plain text/fillable fields in Research.gov, is an example of this. However, the reporting format in Research.gov is ridiculously time-consuming. It has generated an extreme, labor-intensive, administrative burden. Not one Principle Investigator I know wants anything to do with Research.gov, ...more »

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Contractors

PSC: Reduce Small Business Subcontracting Reporting Burden

The FAR requires semi-annual submission of Individual Subcontract Reports (ISRs) for all federal agencies, as well as Summary Subcontract Reports (SSRs) for DoD and NASA, and annual submission of SSRs for civilian agencies. In addition to the submissions required during performance of a covered contract, ISRs are required to be submitted within 30 days of contract completion. Amending the FAR, at a minimum, and the ...more »

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Grantees

True single audit

1. Achieve a true single audit. IHEs are still subject to multiple audits of their individual programs and compliance processes, despite the Single Audit Act of 1984, OMB Circular A-133 and 2CFR-200 Uniform Guidance which mandate single audits for non-federal entities that receive federal funding. The University is subject to a major compliance audit, desk audits and program audits each year.

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Allow institution-approval of personnel cost category adjustment

The grant period usually does not match with the term of a graduate student or a post-doc exactly. Therefore, if one allows institution to approve the budget re-allocation between graduate students and post-docs, instead of seeking approval from funding agency, that will make research go more smoothly based on the need of individual project.

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