Description

Life is good. Your institution submits proposals and receives awards. Your faculty and research support staff perform the research and spend the funds. Everything seems to be running smoothly. Then, the phone rings. The Inspector General's Office would like to "visit" to perform an audit. What do you do? While compliance concerns have always existed, the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act has placed even greater scrutiny on Universities and Colleges and the research funding that is received. Audits are inevitable and preparing for the audit starts when the proposal is being drafted. Is your institution ready? It's essential for all members of the research partnership to be prepared. Not just the Pre and Post Award offices, but the Departmental Research Administrators and faculty. This workshop will focus on preparing for and surviving an external audit from multiple perspectives: the campus External Audit Coordinator, the Departmental Research Administrator, and a Research Administration Compliance Specialist. We will also discuss audit follow up and lessons learned to help you achieve a more effective research compliance program.

Learning Objectives

• To increase awareness of the possibly different perspectives of the auditor, central office personnel, researcher and department administrator;
• Participants will acquire information for successful audit preparation, including difficult and complex scenarios;
• How to use the audit report as a way to improve compliance programs

Pre-Requisites

The successful workshop participant will already possess an understanding of:

• the research lifecycle,
• elements of a research budget,
• cost sharing, effort reporting, program income, and other special project requirements,
• reporting requirements and deliverables

Program Level:

Intermediate