With a justification, I would allow him/her to charge only the percent of effort of the phone that is charged to salary.  That sounds confusing.  For instance, if the PI's effort on the grant is 10%, then I would only allow the grant to pay for 10% of the phone and 10% of the phone calls, internet svc, etc.

Bonnie Kwit
Grant and Contract Officer
Oakland University
505 Wilson Hall
Rochester, MI   48308
(248) 370-4116
xxxxxx@oakland.edu

-----Original Message-----
From: Research Administration List [mailto:xxxxxx@hrinet.org] On Behalf Of Anna Grove
Sent: Friday, August 13, 2010 9:33 AM
To: xxxxxx@hrinet.org
Subject: [RESADM-L] Charging smart phone to a federal grant

Hi All,

A PI came to me with the following request: he wants to know if he can charge the purchase and usage of a smart phone (BB, iPhone etc) to a NIH grant. This was of course not budgeted.... This particular grant has subs in Australia and Boston and the PI also travels to Russia. While he is away from the office he wants to stay connected. His current phone is not a very good one meaning he  doesn't get emails on it.

Is it possible to charge a phone and the usage to a federal grant and if so what are the regulations? Must he only use it to communicate with people on that specific grant? How is it tracked? How will an audit look at it? etc....

Has anyone come across something like this before?

Thanks,

Anna Z. Grove, MBA
Research Administrator
Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Tropical Medicine
The George Washington University
Ross Hall, Room 733
2300 Eye Street, NW
Washington, DC 20037
Phone: 202.994.3635
xxxxxx@gwu.edu

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 subscription information and a web-searchable archive, are available
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