ARRA Proposal Budgets - Administrative Salary
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funding imposes additional reporting burdens on investigators, department administrators and central support offices to track the use of every ARRA dollar. The federal government has not yet finalized the reporting details; however, as now proposed, reports must be submitted for each award within ten days of the end of each quarter. The reports have over 30 separate data fields including the amount of funds received, expended, and unobligated; -Description of the project or activities; -Narrative description of employment impact, including jobs created or retained; and -Details of each subaward activity.
As a result of the burdensome reporting requirements, the Council on Governmental Relations issued guidance supporting direct charges for administrative positions in ARRA applications. The Office of the President and other UC campuses are supporting similar actions.
Therefore, we are strongly encouraging all applicants for ARRA funds to include a line item in the project budget for 10% salary of an administrative analyst. If administering units choose not to include a line item for this position, they still will be expected to provide the level of service needed to satisfy the ARRA reporting requirements for their awards.
If the administrative position is funded in an award, investigators and/or departments may hire staff specifically to gather ARRA information and report it to the agencies. This responsibility must be added to the job description of the individual. They will be required to file effort reports for their time.
The following language is provided for the budget justification:
Due to the extraordinary administrative oversight and reporting activities associated with awards made under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, this proposal includes 10% salary support for the additional administrative services required by the Act should an award be issued. Regulatory support for this request is located at OMB Circular A-21 F.6. a. (2.), which states: "Direct charging of salaries of administrative and clerical staff costs may be appropriate where administrative or clerical services required by the project are significantly greater than the routine level of such services provided by academic departments."
A campus work group is reviewing the proposed data elements in the report and will be issuing further instructions to the campus regarding the reporting process. Some centralization is being considered in order to build the reports on existing data.
If you have any questions regarding this matter, please contact your Contract and Grant Officers or Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research Christina Hansen.
Susan V. Bryant
Vice Chancellor for Research
