At 08:02 AM 6/21/00 -0500, you wrote:
>
>Attached (hopefully) to this message is a pdf file containing a picture of
>a budget to the American Heart Association.  The Southeast Affiliate has a
>just in time process related to proposal budgets which requires that
>detailed budgets not be "created" until the decision is made to award us.
>We are just supposed to ask for a max $71,500 each year.  No budget
>justification is requested at this time.
>
>This budget was provided by the PI without us having to ask for it and we
>have since asked for additional details which he was happy to share - he
>actually had them right in front of him.  It was a nice and quick
>experience for us but we have mucho questions about this whole deal.
>Hopefully this forum can provide some of the answers.
>
>1)      The salaries are not escalated each year although the effort is
>identified as 35%.  The first year calculation is correct but this year we
>will receive at least a 2% COLA.  Should the PI reduce his effort or should
>the difference be considered cost share?
>
>2)      Normally we would not question chemicals, reagents etc.  but what
about
>lab supplies?  Is it necessary to ask what is contemplated in general under
>this fairly broad heading?  What if the PI intends to restock the lab with
>surplus "stuff"?  How could we tell anyway?
>
>3)      The animals line item is simply $1,500 per year.  Do we need to know
>what animals, how many and how much per animal?
>
>4)      Animal per diem is also summarized as $1,200 per year.  Do we need to
>know the details behind the number of days and rate charged?  If so, why?
>
>The reasons for these questions are probably obvious.  PI's don't
>understand why we request details about how they calculated their budgets.
>Debates over allocability weaken when they bring success of the science
>into the discussion because no one is an expert on every field and many of
>us do not have scientific backgrounds.  Debates over allowability - outside
>of published sponsor regs and institutional policy - get hazy when we move
>away from Federal funding.  Some institutions have a policy of not pursuing
>CAS 502 as diligently on non-federal projects so how much does it matter
>that details are provided on these non-fed budgets?  Reasonableness gets
>foggy for similar reasons to allocability because we are the scientist in
>this case.  Consistency is a hard one to argue at the budget stage if you
>decide that it really only matters on federal funding.
>
>This discussion is probably very similar to the same ones we have had
>recently on modular grants.  Maybe the non-federal aspect adds another
>dimension to the discussion.  I know where I stand on all of these and we
>have some fairly strict guidelines in our office that we follow
>consistently regardless of the source of funds.  If you have the time to
>think about it some, I am anxious to hear how other schools are dealing
>with this issue and why they do or do not pursue detailed budgets.  If you
>want to respond to me directly instead of the list, I can summarize answers
>and post general stats to the list at a later date.  Thanks for your input.
>Attachment Converted: "c:\eudora\attach\bud.pdf"
>
I am out of the office today, returning on Monday, June 26th.

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