Minutes of the NIH Intramural Administrative Officers' Meeting
October 7, 1999
NIH Principal Administrative Officers:
Present: Alternates:
Robert Dennis, NIMH, Chair Carolyn Bell, NIA
Sandy Logan, NIMH Katy Perry, NIAID
Susan Harrelson, NIAID Carroll Hanson, NHLBI
Marsha Hennings, NIAMS Trudy Welsh, NHGRI
Carol Smith, NINDS Kathleen Schlom, NCI
Brenda Sandler, NIAAA Marlyn Strickland, CIT
Mary Affeldt, NIDA
Evelyn Burrell, NICHD
Corrine Abbott, NIDCD
Ron Adams, NIDCR
Debbie Fountain, NIDDK Guests:
Bruce Wiggins, NIEHS Mr. Tony Revenis, OD
Olive Childers, NEI Dr. Debbie Wilson, ORS
Eugeine Lackey, OIR/OD Mr. Tom Bodine, CIT
Elaine Ayres, CC
Janis Mullaney, OD/OIR Liaison
Mr. Dennis chaired the meeting.
I. Meeting of Principal Administrative Officers:
1. Purchase Card Close Out - Several of the AOs expressed problems that they experienced with end of FY99 close out procedures on the purchase card. A suggestion was made that the NIH purchase card person be invited to an IAO meeting in June or July to go over close out procedures and have an opportunity for questions.
2. IAO Survey Results - Ms. Affeldt told the group that the majority of the votes from the survey given out at the last meeting were for Human Resources or Procurement. Since most of the ICs don't have the human resources people under the administrative officers, the subcommittee decided to tackle procurement first. They want to develop a customer survey that could be given to the users to get a feel for the kind of service being provided to them. From the responses, the subcommittee hopes to be able to identify any global issues that Mr. Dennis and Ms. Mullaney will need to take to a higher level to address. There was discussion on how NIDA and NIEHS had done similar types of surveys in the past and achieved significant results in improved customer service. ACTION: The subcommittee will develop a template customer survey to distribute to the Principal AOs and the Principal AOs who can decide how/if they choose to use the survey depending on their IC's situation. Then the Principal AOs can share best practices from the survey results.
3. Noteworthy - Ms. Mullaney briefed the group on the following topics:
a. Colleen Barros will be briefing the SDs on the New Business System on October 20, and she also wants to give a briefing to the IAOs at their next meeting on November 4.
b. Dr. Gottesman asked her to check on the status of the annual report. Consensus seemed to be that all was going well for everyone. Some indicated that it was running smoother than last year.
c. The across-the-board postdoctoral VF/IRTA stipend increase of 5%, and exceptional stipend increase option were approved by Dr. Varmus on October 6, 1999. OFM will need the spreadsheet of the increases by the end of October or beginning of November to have enough time to process these increases by December 1.
d. FAES will be increasing their insurance effective 1 January 2000. BlueCross BlueShield individual will increase 44% going to $2,244/year or $187/month and 37% for family coverage to $4,452/year or $371/month. The HMO will be increasing on 8% for individuals and 9.5% for family, and it is now cheaper than BlueCross. FAES insurance increases will be on the SDs agenda for the meeting on 20 October, 1999. This additional amount of obligation can be calculated on the spreadsheet just like the VF/IRTA pay increase.
e. A question was raised if Title 42 employees would receive the COLA increase in January 2000. Ms. Mullaney will get back to the IAOs with the answer.
f. Ms. Mullaney distributed a handout on "Current Intramural Trainees Data and Recruitment Efforts" and there was some discussion on the best way to gather the information necessary to complete the form. The consensus was to give the form to the IC's EEO offices and they can work with the Administrative Offices if need be to gather the information. It was suggested that a category be added for those who did not want to declare a race/ethnicity from the categories given.
g. For persons completing their 6th year of tenure track, Ms. Mullaney cautioned that packages need to be prepared well ahead of the end of the 6th year because it can take many months to process. If anyone has special circumstances, they should notify OIR. She mentioned that Clinical Tenure Track investigators have 8 years.
4. Special Experts - the new manual issuance on Special Experts was discussed. Under the new rules, an IC Director can pay up to $125,900 for a clinical person and there is no time limit to the appointment. ACTION: Ms. Mullaney will check with Mr. Benowitz about linking this manual issuance to the Source Book.
5. Reimbursing repairmen for parking - there was discussion on whether the NIH should reimburse repairmen for their parking while they are here repairing equipment. The consensus was that most repair orders have a line item for mileage, so the parking expense should come from that; therefore, the repairmen would be receiving double payment if they are reimbursed for parking as well.
6. Inter Agency Agreements (IAA) - it was agreed that monies not used by the end of the FY will not be automatically deobligated the next fiscal year. However, charges can still hit until the obligation total has been reached until March of the next fiscal year. Several people mentioned that they had a problem with IAAs being obligated very late in the fiscal year - one with VRP was mentioned specifically.
7. Next Meeting - Ms. Welsh from NHGRI said that the new web based requisition system that her IC developed, called Genome Requisition and Acquisition Support Program (GRASP), would be demonstrated at the next meeting.
II. Open Meeting
1. Conference Support - Mr. Tony Revenis, Contracting Officer with the OD, distributed a handout entitled: "NIH Project Officer's Instructions for Travel and Conference Support Contracts". He said that these task order contracts were designed to speed up and reduce the administrative burden in planning a meeting or arranging travel. All Institutes may use these contracts. For new AOs a letter of authorization will be E-mailed. He also suggested that anyone who wishes to use these contracts should get a quote from all four firms. Then each of the four groups, Courtesy Associates, KRA Corporation, Meridian International Center (including Circle Solutions), and MultiConsultant Associates, Inc. spoke to the group about their history, experiences, capabilities, etc. Mr. Revenis explained that each firm has a maximum hourly rate and a 2% administrative charge for "pass through costs" for hotels, travel, etc.
2. Shipping Hazardous Materials - Dr. Debbie Wilson, Chief, Occupational Safety and Health Branch, distributed an information packet on the shipping requirements of diagnostic, biological, and infectious materials. It provides a website that has the information as well: www.nih.gov/od/ors/ds/shipping. Dr. Wilson asked people to call her if they need additional packets, she's on 496-2960. She explained that if people correctly package the items in the "inner packaging", which is available in the storeroom, the Freight Forwarding Section will do the outer packaging and labeling. The Freight Forwarding Section will even pick up packages from customers. However, Dr. Wilson warned that beginning November 1, 1999, Federal Express will only pick up dangerous goods packages (infectious agents and any package containing dry ice) from the Freight Forwarding Section unless notified by the NIH that packages may be picked up at other buildings when packaged by those individuals trained and certified in packaging Class 9 and Class 6.2 parcels. If people want to be certified to do their own outside packaging and labeling, then Dr. Wilson's office will provide resources and lists of vendors for people to use to obtain certification training. She also said that using the CD ROM program, Saf-T-Pak, which was discussed in last month's meeting, would also provide people with certification once they have completed the training on the CD. The ICs should provide a list of who is certified to the Freight Forwarding Section, so that they can let Federal Express know who they may receive packages from. In addition, Dr. Wilson added that so long as the employee has prepared the package correctly, and he/she is properly certified, if something happens to the package, the employee should not be personally liable for any damage.
3. NIH Electronic Directory - Mr. Tom Bodine from CIT presented the status of this project. He said that a copy of his presentation would be placed on the Directory Steering Committee website: http://www.alw.nih.gov/dsc/. He explained that this program will be used as a centrally coordinated system for email, personnel, parking, ID, and de-registration. It will assign each NIH-affiliated person with a unique NIH ID and will streamline the registration process. It will also aid in the de-registration process. Mr. Bodine showed the group examples of how to use the program, adding people, searching, updating records and de-activating people. He explained that the first phase of the program will be used to replace the current white pages phone book and parking and ID databases. Information has been downloaded from various existing databases to start this program, such as: HRDB, Fogarty Key Contacts, Phone Book, ID and Parking. A pilot program will start in CIT the week of 11 October, then 2 weeks later, NIDCR and NINR are scheduled to start pilot programs.
Mr. Bodine is looking for volunteers from larger ICs to expand the pilot in late October or November. Mr. Bodine explained that Privacy Act Clearance must be granted before the program can go live.
DISTRIBUTION:
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