When the award is received, we send out a letter to the
department/PI explaining the requirements and indicating that they
should work with our Purchasing people to accomplish the
objectives (they have a book that lists these type of businesses.
The book is compiled by our state Commerce dept - I believe it is
based on businesses that respond to a voluntary survey).  The
reporting, though, is handled similarly to what you do.  We require
the department to complete the report and we review and sign, like
we do on financial reports, but we often do have to question or
correct the information.  I know that some other schools handle all
of this through their Purchasing folks, but from what I understand it
is because in their state they have a state goal for purchasing from
minority or women-owned businesses, so they are tracking and
reporting to the state, and a report to the feds doesn't take much
extra work.  Our state has no such goals and in fact is relatively
low on minority and women-owned businesses that provided goods
or services that are needed for these projects.  Many of our
MBE/WBE reports go in with $0 for this type of purchasing. We
instruct the departments the need to try, though, and we haven't
had EPA question us to this point.

Date sent:              Fri, 19 Oct 2001 08:35:21 -0600
Send reply to:          Research Administration Discussion List <xxxxxx@hrinet.org>
From:                   "Selby,Mary" <xxxxxx@RESEARCH.COLOSTATE.EDU>
Subject:                [RESADM-L] EPA - MBE/WBE Ulitization under Federal Grants,
 Coop. Agreements & Interagency Agreements - form 5700-52A
To:                     xxxxxx@HRINET.ORG

Our office is wrestling with the annual MBE/WBE forms required by EPA, which
are due the end of this month (as well as at close out).  Our current
process entails staff in Sponsored Programs reviewing the EPA prime awards
and any subcontracts with EPA flo through.  Based on this review, we
complete all sections of the form except box 5d, "Actual MBE/WBE Procurement
Accomplished this Reporting Period," and Box 6, "Comments".  We then send
the form with detailed instructions and a tip sheet to the Principal
Investigators and request they work with their accounting staff to compile
the information and fill out these two boxes.  They are instructed to then
return the form to Sponsored Programs for signature and forwarding to EPA
and/or institutions from which we have received subcontracts.
We have recently met with the University Purchasing Department to determine
if completion of this form falls more in their realm than the PI obtaining
the information.
I welcome hearing from folks to know how other institutions handle this
requirement.  Faculty frequently do not understand the intent of the form,
how to compile the information, plus the data returned is often
questionable.

Mary Selby
Senior Research Administrator
Sponsored Programs
Colorado State University
Fort Collins, CO 80523
970 491-5574
FAX 970 491-6147

======================================================================
 Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
 subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
 via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
======================================================================

Shannon Fisher
Assistant Controller
Kansas State University Controller's Office
Sponsored Projects Accounting
785-532-6207
xxxxxx@ksu.edu

======================================================================
 Instructions on how to use the RESADM-L Mailing List, including
 subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
 via our web site at http://www.hrinet.org (click on "Listserv Lists")
======================================================================