Principal Investigator Effort Training Created 07/2010 by Sponsored Projects Administration What are Effort Certification Statements? Effort Certification Statements are documentation of effort (the amount of personnel.
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Transcript Principal Investigator Effort Training Created 07/2010 by Sponsored Projects Administration What are Effort Certification Statements? Effort Certification Statements are documentation of effort (the amount of personnel.
Principal Investigator
Effort Training
Created 07/2010 by Sponsored Projects Administration
What are Effort
Certification Statements?
Effort Certification Statements are
documentation of effort (the amount of
personnel work) expended on federally
sponsored projects.
Statements include:
What is on an Effort
Statements?
Information
about who the
statement is for
and the effort
period (the
dates) it covers.
Statements include:
The accounts listed
on a statement are
in relation to the
covered
individual’s payroll
distributions during
the time period of
the statement
covers.
GL and OGA
related accounts
are included.
Statements include:
Oracle divides the
“effort related”
payroll paid during
the period for each
account by the
total effort related
payroll the
individual received.
This is then
represented as a
percentage on the
statement.
It is worth noting, that a projects start
and end date in relation to the start
and end date of the effort period can
effect how the covered individual’s %
of payroll distribution is represented.
Statements include:
Cost sharing
activities (that are
not already being
represented by a
cost sharing
companion
account) are
accounted for by
being written in on
the statement in
this column.
Statements include:
The covered
individual’s total
effort for each
account is
written in here
and must equal
a 100% when
added together.
Statements include:
The actual
statement on the
form that a the
signer is
certifying to.
The statement again, this time in a
readable size font:
“I certify that I have reasonable means of
verifying the activities performed by the above
mentioned employee and that the distribution of
effort represents a reasonable estimate of the
actual work performed by the employee during
the period covered by this report.”
What Does “Reasonable”
Mean?
Reasonable means OHSU allows for a 5%
variance per line on an effort statement
when it is certified.
For example, if a statement is certified with
10% on a particular project, this implies
that the covered individual’s effort for that
project was between 5-15%.
Statements include:
A person who is able
to agree that
statement and sign
the form are:
•The covered
individual
•The Principal
Investigator for the
project’s represented.
•A supervisor who has
direct knowledge of
the covered
individual’s activities
Why Do We Certify
Effort?
OHSU’s Effort Certification system was
developed in direct response to the
Federal Office of Management and
Budget (OMB) Circular A-21
(http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/circulars
_a021_2004/).
What is A-21?
A-21 aims to ensure that the Federal
Government bears its fair share of total costs.
A-21 recognizes that in an academic setting,
teaching, research, service, and administration
are often inextricably intermingled. A precise
assessment of factors that contribute to costs is
not always feasible nor is it expected. Reliance
therefore is placed on estimates in which a
degree of tolerance is appropriate.
What is A-21?
Effort is auditable and failure to comply with
A-21 can have very serious consequences.
Who needs to have their
effort certified?
An employee is required to complete an
Effort Certification Statement if they have:
Activity that is partially or totally devoted to a
federally sponsored agreement.
AND, pay that is partially or totally paid from
such an agreement, OR is represented as
cost sharing
When Do We Certify
Effort?
OHSU certifies effort on a semi-annual
basis.
OHSU effort periods are from:
Jan 1-Jun 30
July 1-Dec 31
Statements are generated and
distributed approximately 30 business
days after the end of an effort period.
The delay is to provide Departments
additional time to work with PI’s to
ensure that the payroll distributions for a
project in Oracle are correct.
What are a PI’s Responsibilities
at OHSU for Effort Reporting?
Review, Understand,
and Certify
As a PI you are responsible for:
Understanding Effort Certification Policies and
Procedures. This information is posted on the
Sponsored Projects Administration website at
http://www.ohsu.edu/research/rda/spa/effortcert.
shtml.
Working with your Department Effort
Coordinators to review, understand, and certify
your own statement and when appropriate your
project staff’s statements.
Ensuring Payroll Charges
are Appropriate
As a PI you are also responsible for
ensuring that the charges on your
sponsored accounts are accurate and
appropriate.
This includes being aware if you are affected by a
federal salary cap and working with your
department to ensure that your salary over the cap
is being supported as cost share by a nonsponsored account.
At times a rounding error in the Payroll
Distribution % column can occur within
Oracle. This can cause the Payroll
Distribution % to show slightly more or
less than 100%.
This rounding error falls within the 5%
variance allowed for statements and is
acceptable.
Keeping Track of Your
Committed Effort
Principal Investigators are responsible
for making sure that your total effort
commitment does not exceed 100%.
All Research?
All the Time?
If you have100% of your effort charged
to sponsored agreement(s) than you
must have a letter that has been signed
by your Dean or Director that specifies
that you are dedicated 100% to
research and not responsible for any
administrative, teaching, or clinical
duties at OHSU.
Getting Sponsor Approval
for Changes
As a PI you must obtain prior approval
from the appropriate institutional and
agency authority to make a change to
the committed effort(s) to a project
award.
Also, you need to be aware if there are
special effort related terms and
conditions to a particular project award.
Contacts for Effort
Related Questions?
Your first resource for effort related
questions is your Department Effort
Coordinator.
Your second resource is the Sponsored
Project Administration’s Institutional
Effort Coordinator who can be reached
at [email protected] or ext 4-6984.