Next Meeting: August 4, 2005 - 1:00-3:00 p.m. - Bldg 10, Room 2C116

 

Attendees	Substitutes
Adams, Linda, NHGRI	Welsh, Trudy
Adams, Ronald, CC	Young, Barbara
Affeldt, Mary, NIDA
Betson, Ginger, NIDCR
Bortner, Don, NIA
Bullman, Laurie, ORS	Cowling, Belinda
Childers, Olive, OD/OIR
Chloupek, Larry, NCI
Dease, Debra, NINDS
Ferreira, Ana, NINR	Fitzwater, Linda
Grosman, Gail, NIGMS
Harrelson, Susan, NIDDK
Le, Truc, NINDS
Ng, Cathy, NCI	Hill, Kristie
Perry, Katy, NIAID
Sandler, Brenda, NIAAA
Simmonds-Barnes, Denise, NCCAM
Strickland, Marlyn, CIT	Miles, Anita
Tosten, Tim, NIMH
Unger, Gary, NHLBI	Broadnex, Ina
Wiggins, Bruce, NIEHS

Minutes: Prepared by Francie Kitzmiller, NIDDK

Closed Session (1:00 - 2:15)

1) Discussion about status of ARAC Consolidated Operations Acquisition Center (COAC) conversion and subcommittee reports - Mary Affeldt and Susan Harrelson

A handout was provided which provides valuable information on the implementation of the ARAC acquisitions implementation. All of the COAC's are scheduled to be implemented by October 2005. The lead IC's will have a general meeting with their own IC's and then schedule another meeting for the other IC's to provide information as to how the process will work.

2) AEA Travel - Susan Harrelson

Susan provided an e-mail from Richard Southers on this topic. In summary, the Executive Officer's met and Ken Stith discussed the issue of Actual Expense Allowance (AEA) travel. OFM is going to conduct and audit due to the fact that 20% of all travel was done as an AEA and there was an increase to the government of about $1.5 million above what the travel would normally have been.
Ken made several points about AEA travel as a reminder. One particular point that is of importance to the AO community was the statement that the AO should be checking the costs of the different hotels - not the traveler or the approving official. Anne Rogerson from NCI brought this to Joel Papier's attention and he changed the procedures to allow for travel planners to also check the costs of alternative hotels.

3) Mandatory Personal Security Training for Temporary Duty Travel of 30 days or more - Susan Harrelson

Susan provided a handout for the above mentioned topic. Effective January 1, 2005, this mandatory personal security training will be required. Arrangements to comply with the training requirement must be noted on the Notification of Foreign Travel (NFT) and it will be approved until this training has taken place for any personnel falling into this category. The training will be valid for a period of five years.

4) New Critical Element for Performance Contracts - Weaknesses in procurement and finance systems - Susan Harrelson and Brenda Sandler

In accordance with the Improper Payment Information Act of 2002, the HHS instructed the ICs in September 2004 to identify positions where there are responsibilities for recovering and reducing improper payments. Some ICs are adding the following objective in their performance contracts to these positions:

"Identify and address weaknesses in grant system(s), procurement systems, and finance offices to ensure recovery of improper payments and to reduce the number of improper payments made by the Department."

5) PRAT - Susan Harrelson and Gail Grosman

Gail Grosman is an AO with NIGMS and they run the Pharmacology Research Associate (PRAT) program. They are considering changing the procedures for the first year of a PRAT from and FTE appointment to an IRTA appointment. The paperwork for the IRTA appointment would be done by the gaining IC however the NIGMS would provide the CAN to cover all the costs.
Gail asked everyone to look over this draft and provide her with any comments or questions. She will look into anything brought forward and work through the final draft of the procedures. Overall, it was accepted by the AO community.

6) Ideas for focus group discussions - Mary Affeldt and Susan Harrelson

At the last IAO meeting, Susan asked that the AO community consider the idea for a focus group. The idea was that the AO community would take the lead on the various issues affecting them, establish a focus group to discuss how to present the issues, and bring those issues to Joan Schwartz. Some examples would be personnel, travel, and procurement. Susan didn't get any response so she brought the issue up again to try to gain support. She asked everyone to again consider the how useful this will be for the AO community and please respond to her with ideas.

7) Open Discussions on controversial/urgent issues - ALL

Handouts:

DRAFT - ARAC monthly progress report: Acquisitions Implementation Group

Model Office of Acquisitions Organization Chart

DRAFT - Service Level Agreement Between IC COAC and NIH Customer

Resource Subcommittee Overview

Email from Anne Rogerson on AEA Travel from her conversation with Joel Papier - dated June 21, 2005

Mandatory Personal Security Training for Temporary Duty Travel of 30 days or more, from Fogarty website: http://www.fic.nih.gov/pstrain.html

DRAFT Procedures for Tasks associated with the Pharmacology Research Associate (PRAT) program and IRTA Program

Office of Research Services Security and Emergency Response - Perimeter Security System (PSS) Activation NIH ID Badge Validation Project