Documenting
Expenditure Pre-approvals
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Your
particular agreement may require pre-approvals by the
sponsor for certain types of expenditures. In these cases,
the sponsor is saying that they want to review these expenditures
before allowing them. Without this approval, they are
therefore UNALLOWABLE costs.
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| Be
on the lookout for approval requirements related to:
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Prior
approvals must be in writing from the Grant or
Contract Officer. E-mail is one way to record this approval,
particularly for grants. Contracts may require an actual
signature. Note that all request for approval must be
submitted or co-signed by ORPA.
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Without
documentation of this approval, expenditures for such
costs will be unallowable, even if you have verbal authorization
from the sponsor. It's not unusual for this type of expenditure
to be reviewed in a postaward or closeout audit, which
can occur years after the expenditure took place. Without
the documentation in the file, it is likely that such
costs will be disallowed, and will have to be paid with
department funds.
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| While
it is important to remain in communication with the technical
officer when such conditions warrant, these kinds of pre-approvals
must come from the sponsor's administrative officer.
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