Thank you, Nicole, and thanks to everyone who responded to this question.

I appreciate the thoughtful responses!

-Lori

On 10/10/14, 9:38 AM, "Nicole Whetstine" <xxxxxx@ERAU.EDU> wrote:

>The NSF OIG just released a report last month of an audit at the
>University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in which they questioned
>salary costs on NSF grants exceeding 2 months. The report specifically
>references the NSF FAQ's. Below is an excerpt from the report:
>
>UIUC agreed with our calculation of the excessive salary amounts charged
>to the NSF Awards
>for these individuals; however, it stated that the Frequently Asked
>Questions (FAQs) document
>on Proposal Preparation and Award Administration available on NSF¹s
>website indicates that
>grantees are not required to obtain NSF¹s approval to exceed the
>two-month salary limitation. It
>therefore does not agree with the questioned costs. While the responses
>to the FAQ¹s indicate
>that prior approval is not required from NSF to exceed the 2 month salary
>rule, the FAQ
>responses do not represent authoritative guidance and therefore do not
>overrule NSF¹s Award
>and Administration Guidelines that require specific approval to allocate
>greater than 2 months of
>salary to NSF during a one year period. As the FAQ¹s do not override NSF
>policies, we have not
>changed our opinion on this finding and the questioned costs remain the
>same.
>
>I found this very surprising as I had assumed the NSF FAQ's would have
>been sufficient considering they came straight from NSF.
>
>Nicole Whetstine
>Grant Administrator
>Office of Sponsored Research Administration
>Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University
>xxxxxx@erau.edu
>
>
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