Check you insurance/risk management first.  It may be covered under that,
as a minimization of cost for a loss.  Then discuss with sponsor.  You are
responsible for the equipment bought under the grant if title vests in your
institution.

Chuck

At 09:08 AM 1/13/2004, you wrote:
>We have an unusal situation.   A piece of grant-funded oceanography
>equipment was lost while deployed, so the PI offered a reward to anyone who
>found it ($1000).     A publicly-funded employee found it and said he can't
>accept the reward, but asked if the reward could be sent to the "benevolent"
>society connected with his employment.    THE QUESTION:    Can we use
>federal grant funds to pay this reward?
>
>It certainly passes the "prudent person" test (the equipment is quite
>expensive, finding the equipment has research value even if the equipment is
>not salvageable .. and I believe that it still can be used, and it would
>have been paid to a private citizen who found it).    But "rewards" were not
>part of the original budget and I can't find anything related in a quick
>search of A-21.
>
>If you reply directly to me I'll post a summary to the list.
>
>Franci Farnsworth
>
>Frances Vinal Farnsworth
>Coordinator of Sponsored Research
>Munford House
>Middlebury College
>Middlebury, VT 05753
>
>Tel:  802-443-5889
>Fax:  802-443-2081
>Email:  xxxxxx@middlebury.edu
>Web:  http://www.middlebury.edu/~grants/
>
>
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Herbert B. Chermside, CRA

Virginia Commonwealth University
Sanger Hall, Room 1-022
PO BOX 980568
Richmond, VA  23298-0568
Voice:  804-827-6036
Fax     804-828-2051
e-mail xxxxxx@vcu.edu

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