Background
For fiscal year 2017, the university received an audit finding related to technical reporting requirements on federal awards. Specifically, Finding 2017-001 Reporting stated that “[t]he University [was] not in compliance with the federal requirement requiring the timely submission of reports.”* The auditor recommended that “[t]he University . . . establish and monitor a control system to ensure all reports are prepared and submitted in accordance with the federal requirements.”* When implementing the controls necessary to ensure compliance, the university determined it was appropriate to apply a common approach for all awards (federal and non-federal). This was done to avoid confusion for Principal Investigators (PI) and to better manage the university’s reputational risk related to late reports.
Experience during the past few years has shown that the implemented controls satisfy federal regulatory requirements; however, they are too broad, create unnecessary administrative burdens and friction for the campus community, and should be scaled back to only cover federal and federal flow-through awards.
New Approach Effective November 1, 2022
Effective November 1, 2022, the Office of Sponsored Programs (OSP) will no longer do the following for non-federal and non-federal flow-through awards:**
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- Add technical reporting requirements to its internal Smartsheet tracking system;
- Notify PIs about upcoming technical report due dates; or
- Escalate late technical reports to PIs, department chairs, deans, and vice presidents.
How Does This Affect PIs?
THIS MEANS THAT PIs ARE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR TRACKING TECHNICAL REPORTING REQUIREMENTS AND ASSOCIATED DUE DATES FOR NEW AND AMENDED NON-FEDERAL AND NON-FEDERAL FLOW-THROUGH AWARDS.
What About Existing Technical Report Tracking in Smartsheet?
OSP’s Smartsheet tracking system currently has thousands of technical reporting deadlines. OSP will continue to allow automated reminders to go out to PIs for existing awards (excluding amendments), but will not escalate them. Consequently, PIs need to develop an approach to manage their technical reporting requirements and associated deadlines. OSP will remind PIs about this change in new award notifications. If you have any questions, please contact postaward@boisestate.edu.
*Download Schedule of Findings and Questioned Costs, Boise State University Financial Statements Fiscal Year 2017 (PDF) (last visited Oct. 10, 2022).
**Non-exhaustive examples include awards from non-profits, counties, municipalities, businesses, foreign organizations, tribal governments, and State of Idaho agencies using State of Idaho appropriated funds.