An update from Research Grants about UKRI audit findings, planned EC audit, eTime reminders and the Research Management Conference. Image UKRI Institutional Audit Themes Thank you to everyone who helped to provide information for the UKRI audit in June and for the follow up data requested in July. While we will not have the final audit findings until later this year, we can share with you some of the themes emerging from the audit. Expenses credit card statements are not acceptable as evidence of spend. Please remember to attach the image of the original receipt to all expense claims. scanning quality in some cases was poor. Images of receipts need to be legible, and complete. travel and subsistence claimed has to be appropriate to the project. hospitality must to be properly recorded using the “Hospitality and Entertaining Expense type (4567/3222)” on the expenses system as this has mandatory information we need to collect in relation to hospitality. value for money is the primary consideration in travel. Consequently, only travel by standard class by train and economy class by air for flights are allowed. Exceptions should be clearly justified and approved and must be within the terms of the University’s expenses policy. Procurement reminder that for equipment and services where the contract value is more than £25,000, excluding VAT, that professionally qualified procurement staff must be consulted before the procurement process begins. ensure you follow Procurement guidance in relation to obtaining buying and obtaining quotes: http://www.docs.csg.ed.ac.uk/Procurement/policies_procedures/TimescalesThresholds/ThreshTimesApril2016.pdf. Other Two new audit themes are emerging as a result of the recent change in the grant terms and conditions. These are: value for money. The Research Councils require public funds to be deployed with due consideration to value for money across all activities and will expect the University to evidence this e.g. last minute “shopping” on research grants will be closely examined to ensure it is justified, evidence of compliance with best practice on asset sharing. due diligence. The University needs to ensure that it carries out appropriate due diligence on any third parties used to deliver any part of the work funded by the grant and shall ensure in particular, that activities carried out by such third parties comply with these terms and conditions. We are working on guidance to support these new themes and would welcome any ideas or queries. Please email E.Welch@ed.ac.uk with your comments. European Commission : Institutional Audit/Timesheets We have been notified that the European Commission (EC) will be undertaking an institutional audit soon. The exact dates of the visit has not been finalised but it is likely to be before the end of September 2018. In prepartion for the visit, might you all ensure that your paperwork/supporting documentation is in order for the visit. In particular, it would be helpful if all the timesheets can be kept up-to-date so that they are available when EC team arrive. The completion of timesheets is an area that is often left to the last minute and it can be difficult to get in touch with the people needed to complete them quickly. Your support with this is appreciated. Research Management Conference 2018 and 2019 Many of you attended this year's Research Management Conference in June. If you are interested in seeing the slides from the conference, there are available on the Finance Wiki here. We have provisionally planned for next year's research management conference for Wednesday 24th April 2019...you can reserve your place here. This article was published on 2024-07-01
