Generally, we pay "consultants" in arrears.  We require that they submit
an invoice to us periodically with a listing of time and costs, and a
listing of tasks completed.  These invoices are reviewed by the project
director and (in theory) approved based on his or her satisfaction with
the consultants progress.  We have had instances where the consultants
invoice was either not honored or partially honored based on a lack of
satisfactory progress.

We have had one instance where payments to the consultant got ahead of
actual progress (not our usual practice) and there was no hope of the
consultant ever successfully completing the work.  In this case we kept
the sponsor appraised of the situation and basically we just walked away
from the consultant.  They claimed that they had spent the hours to
justify the pay - although we agreed that the hours had been spent, the
work/products were unusable.  With little hope of recovering the funds
in a timely fashion or with no additional cost,  the sponsor agreed that
we should forget it and take steps to put the project back on track.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>|<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
 Larry Waxler, Associate Director  |
 Office of Sponsored Programs      | INTERNET:  xxxxxx@Maine.Maine.EDU
 University of Southern Maine      | TELEPHONE: 207-780-4411
 96 Falmouth Street                | TELEFAX:   207-780-4417
 Portland, Maine  04103            |
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>|<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<