Minutes of the NIH Intramural Administrative Officers' Meeting

December 2, 1999

NIH Principal Administrative Officers:

Present: Alternates:

Robert Dennis, NIMH, Chair John Savannah, ORS

Susan Harrelson, NIAID Katy Perry, NIAID

Carol Smith, NINDS Jody Cullen, NHLBI

Bonnie Cramer, NINR Rene' Smither, NIDCR

Brenda Sandler, NIAAA Valerie Nicewarner, NEI

Linda Adams, NHGRI

Mary Affeldt, NIDA

Evelyn Burrell, NICHD

Corrine Abbott, NIDCD

Byron Mason, NIDDK

Bruce Wiggins, NIEHS Guests:

Betty Fitzpatrick, NCI Mr. Mike Philippi, NHGRI

Lucy Greene, NCI Mr. Don Bordine, NHGRI

Edie Smith, CIT Ms. Mildred Steward, DES

Eugenie Lackey, OIR/OD Ms. Michelle Millican, CIT

Elaine Ayres, CC

Janis Mullaney, OD/OIR Liaison

Anita Brooks, VRC

Mr. Robert Dennis chaired the meeting.

I. Meeting of Principal Administrative Officers:

Mr. Dennis announced that Al Stringer, Principal AO for ORS will be retiring the end of December. He also ensured that everyone had received copies of the two survey forms: "NIDA Intramural Research program Provider Survey of Administrative Support Areas", and "NIDA Intramural Research Program User Survey of Administrative Support Areas".

1. Co-Chair of the NIH/Principal Intramural Administrative Officers Committee - after much discussion, it was decided that the committee will have two co-chairs, one the traditional rotating position and the other a "permanent", which will be filled by the person occupying the OD/OIR Liaison position, currently Janis Mullaney. The person occupying the rotating position, Ms. Ruth Ann Talley, has expressed interest in taking on a more active than her predessesors.

2. Office of Intramural Research (OIR) ISSUES - Ms. Janis Mullaney briefed the group on the following topics:

a. Self Assessment Management Control Document - Ms. Mullaney distributed this document at the previous meeting for comments. All changes have been incorported into the form; therefore, the FY 1999 Questionnaire needs to be completed by the Scientific Directors within 30 days.

b. Hazardous Shipping Training - Ms. Mullaney spoke to Debbie Wilson in the Diviison of Safety, and Dr. Wilson has agreed to look into doing centralized training, probably on a quarterly basis. She will all keep records of all the persons who have received the training and been certified and distribute the lists to Federal Express.

c. FAES Increase Spreadsheet - There is a spreadsheet that is due January 20, 2000 to OFM, which will outline the new cost for each fellow for the increase in FAES insurance. Ms. Mullaney previous sent out an email on this topic; however, since it appears several people didn't get this email, she will re-send it.

d. SD Meeting

- Retirement from the Commissioned Corps - New DCP directives just announced that persons transferring between civilian and Corps systems, can no longer transfer their leave. A recent e-mail message was forwarded to the SDs on this issue.

- Ability to hire/promote to all permanent scientific positions at the 13-15 level, including Title 42 positions, such as research staff scientists, has been delegated to the ICs (except for exceptional cases, such as when more than one staff scientist per PI is requested).

The final Office of Intramural Research Policies for personnel action will be forwarded to the IAOs.
- Speciality allowances for postdoctoral fellows will be discussed at the next SD meeting.

e. VF/IRTA 5% increase - the postdoctoral IRTAs and VFs 5% stipend increases were processed by OFM for all ICs that submitted their spreadsheet of the changes.

f. New Title 42 Manual Issuance - Ms. Mullaney announced that the rules have changed such that the 3 years of relevant post-doc experience is no longer required for Research Fellows or Research Fellow (VP)s. The final version of the manual issuance should be out soon.

g. Students - Ms. Mullaney stressed the importance of ensuring that students who are here to do research as employees or in training, especially if they are in the labs and around chemicals and other potentially hazardous materials, they should be given the proper safety training, mentoring/ supervision and be on the proper paperwork. They should either be on a special volunteer, student IRTA appointment, or student civil service appointment.

II. Open Meeting

1. DELPRO/DES Funding - Ms. Mildred Steward from DES and Ms. Michelle Millican from CIT presented a briefing on DES funds approval through the Administrative DataBase/DELPRO system. Ms. Steward distributed a handout entitled: "DES Funds Approval". She explained that when one looks at a typical printout for DES services, a CSA Request - DES Funds Approval, the top half of the form represents fees for in-house goods and/or services and the bottom half shows contractual costs. Ms. Steward explained that when an AO approves a work request, DES can spend up to $5,000 without further approval. DES does not obligate the funding right away. As they do activities on that work request, they will charge standard fees for services. Ms. Steward explained the different uses and reasons for electronic vs. hard copy funds requests. She also explained about the 8 different categories of in-house services. She outlined when obligations and commitments occurred depending on whether the request is in-house or contractual. This included the information that it often takes a while for contractual actions to show as obligations because the procurement people do not want DES to print review the orders until they have all the contractual documentation necessary to award the contract. Ms. Steward also explained that on the form itself, the right column represents the additional funds requested for that particular work request, and the middle column represents total funding requested by the fiscal year and CAN sited on the funds packet for the entire job. If someone needs a summary for an entire job for a three year period, the summary screen can provide that information. Ms. Steward closed by saying that the funding shown on these work requests, for both in-house and contractual services, represents estimates, not actuals. For actual costs, one must look on the summary screen, or financial documents such as data warehouse, or status of funds.

2. Web Based Acquisition System - Ms. Linda Adams introduced the new system which NHGRI is using to replace AMBIS. She introduced Mike Philippi, the Chief of NHGRIs, Acquisition and Logistics Section, AMB. He demonstrated the system, which is accessed through a web browser and SYBASE is the software the system uses. Some of the features of the system that were shown or explained include: creating a worksheet, as new BPAs are signed, the information is downloaded into the vendor section, manual data entry into DELPRO much occur, there is a password and logon id required to access the system for security reasons, each CAN has the ability to add custom vendors, purchasing agents add the object class codes when they put the order into DELPRO.

3. Orientation Database - Ms. Adams introduced an orientation database which was created by a committee consisting of NIAMS, NIAAA, NEI, NIDR, NIDCD, and NHGRI. It resides on a server in CIT, and each IC can access it through their own in house webpage. It costs $10-20/month to reside on the CIT server. The database contains standard information for the orientation of intramural scientists and other personnel for all the ICs, but it also has the capacity to contain specific IC information,IC links, and outside of the IC links. Ms. Adams introduced Mr. Don Bordine, a Management Analyst within their institute who demonstrated the database. The database contains the following sections: Introduction, Administrative Contacts, Computer Usage and Maintenance, Outside Activities, Procurement, Property, Research Code of Conduct, Safety Sites, Scientific Prohibitions, Shipping Hazardous Materials, Training, Travel, Veterinary Resources, Summary List of Selected Web Sites, as well as links to other sites. Ms. Adams stressed that when the committee gets the final URL, she will distribute the website to the principal IAOs. In the meantime, each participating IC is in the process of editing their own website.

4. Database of administrative positions - This was an agenda item, but time did not permit discussion of this topic. It will be delayed until the next meeting.

DISTRIBUTION:

Administrative Officers (For distribution to staff members)

Scientific Directors

Executive Officers