(a) A State must expand and account for grant funds in accordance with State laws and procedures for expending and accounting for its own funds. Fiscal control and accounting procedures of the State, as well as its subgrantees and cost-type contractors, must be sufficient to—

(1) Permit preparation of reports required by this part and the statutes authorizing the grant, and

(2) Permit the tracing of funds to a level of expenditures adequate to establish that such funds have not been used in violation of the restrictions and prohibitions of applicable statutes.

(b) The financial management systems of other grantees and subgrantees must meet the following standards:

(1) Financial reporting. Accurate, current, and complete disclosure of the financial results of financially assisted activities must be made in accordance with the financial reporting requirements of the grant or subgrant.

(2) Accounting records. Grantees and subgrantees must maintain records which adequately identify the source and application of funds provided for financially-assisted activities. These records must contain information pertaining to grant or subgrant awards and authorizations, obligations, unobligated balances, assets, liabilities, outlays or expenditures, and income.

(3) Internal control. Effective control and accountability must be maintained for all grant and subgrant cash, real and personal property, and other assets. Grantees and subgrantees must adequately safeguard all such property and must assure that it is used solely for authorized purposes.

(4) Budget control. Actual expenditures or outlays must be compared with budgeted amounts for each grant or subgrant. Financial information must be related to performance or productivity data, including the development of unit cost information whenever appropriate or specifically required in the grant or subgrant agreement. If unit cost data are required, estimates based on available documentation will be accepted whenever possible.

(5) Allowable cost. Applicable OMB cost principles, agency program regulations, and the terms of grant and subgrant agreements will be followed in determining the reasonableness, allowability, and allocability of costs.

(6) Source documentation. Accounting records must be supported by such source documentation as cancelled checks, paid bills, payrolls, time and attendance records, contract and subgrant award documents, etc.

(7) Cash management. Procedures for minimizing the time elapsing between the transfer of funds from the U.S. Treasury and disbursement by grantees and subgrantees must be followed whenever advance payment procedures are used. Grantees must establish reasonable procedures to ensure the receipt of reports on subgrantees' cash balances and cash disbursements in sufficient time to enable them to prepare complete and accurate cash transactions reports to the awarding agency. When advances are made by letter-of-credit or electronic transfer of funds methods, the grantee must make drawdowns as close as possible to the time of making disbursements. Grantees must monitor cash drawdowns by their subgrantees to assure that they conform substantially to the same standards of timing and amount as apply to advances to the grantees.

(c) An awarding agency may review the adequacy of the financial management system of any applicant for financial assistance as part of a preaward review or at any time subsequent to award.

(a) Scope. This section prescribes the basic standard and the methods under which a Federal agency will make payments to grantees, and grantees will make payments to subgrantees and contractors.

(b) Basic standard. Methods and procedures for payment shall minimize the time elapsing between the transfer of funds and disbursement by the grantee or subgrantee, in accordance with Treasury regulations at 31 CFR part 205.

(c) Advances. Grantees and subgrantees shall be paid in advance, provided they maintain or demonstrate the willingness and ability to maintain procedures to minimize the time elapsing between the transfer of the funds and their disbursement by the grantee or subgrantee.

(d) Reimbursement. Reimbursement shall be the preferred method when the requirements in paragraph (c) of this section are not met. Grantees and subgrantees may also be paid by reimbursement for any construction grant. Except as otherwise specified in regulation, Federal agencies shall not use the percentage of completion method to pay construction grants. The grantee or subgrantee may use that method to pay its construction contractor, and if it does, the awarding agency's payments to the grantee or subgrantee will be based on the grantee's or subgrantee's actual rate of disbursement.

(e) Working capital advances. If a grantee cannot meet the criteria for advance payments described in paragraph (c) of this section, and the Federal agency has determined that reimbursement is not feasible because the grantee lacks sufficient working capital, the awarding agency may provide cash or a working capital advance basis. Under this procedure the awarding agency shall advance cash to the grantee to cover its estimated disbursement needs for an initial period generally geared to the grantee's disbursing cycle. Thereafter, the awarding agency shall reimburse the grantee for its actual cash disbursements. The working capital advance method of payment shall not be used by grantees or subgrantees if the reason for using such method is the unwillingness or inability of the grantee to provide timely advances to the subgrantee to meet the subgrantee's actual cash disbursements.

(f) Effect of program income, refunds, and audit recoveries on payment. (1) Grantees and subgrantees shall disburse repayments to and interest earned on a revolving fund before requesting additional cash payments for the same activity.

(2) Except as provided in paragraph (f)(1) of this section, grantees and subgrantees shall disburse program income, rebates, refunds, contract settlements, audit recoveries and interest earned on such funds before requesting additional cash payments.

(g) Withholding payments. (1) Unless otherwise required by Federal statute, awarding agencies shall not withhold payments for proper charges incurred by grantees or subgrantees unless—

(i) The grantee or subgrantee has failed to comply with grant award conditions or

(ii) The grantee or subgrantee is indebted to the United States.

(2) Cash withheld for failure to comply with grant award condition, but without suspension of the grant, shall be released to the grantee upon subsequent compliance. When a grant is suspended, payment adjustments will be made in accordance with § 33.43(c).

(3) A Federal agency shall not make payment to grantees for amounts that are withheld by grantees or subgrantees from payment to contractors to assure satisfactory completion of work. Payments shall be made by the Federal agency when the grantees or subgrantees actually disburse the withheld funds to the contractors or to escrow accounts established to assure satisfactory completion of work.

(h) Cash depositories. (1) Consistent with the national goal of expanding the opportunities for minority business enterprises, grantees and subgrantees are encouraged to use minority banks (a bank which is owned at least 50 percent by minority group members). A list of minority owned banks can be obtained from the Minority Business Development Agency, Department of Commerce, Washington, DC 20230.

(2) A grantee or subgrantee shall maintain a separate bank account only when required by Federal-State agreement.

(i) Interest earned on advances. Except for interest earned on advances of funds exempt under the Intergovernmental Cooperation Act (31 U.S.C. 6501 et seq.) and the Indian Self-Determination Act (23 U.S.C. 450), grantees and subgrantees shall promptly, but at least quarterly, remit interest earned on advances to the Federal agency. The grantee or subgrantee may keep interest amounts up to $100 per year for administrative expenses.

(a) Limitation on use of funds. Grant funds may be used only for:

(1) The allowable costs of the grantees, subgrantees and cost-type contractors, including allowable costs in the form of payments to fixed-price contractors; and

(2) Reasonable fees or profit to cost-type contractors but not any fee or profit (or other increment above allowable costs) to the grantee or subgrantee.

(b) Applicable cost principles. For each kind of organization, there is a set of Federal principles for determining allowable costs. Allowable costs will be determined in accordance with the cost principles applicable to the organization incurring the costs. The following chart lists the kinds of organizations and the applicable cost principles.

(a) General. Where a funding period is specified, a grantee may charge to the award only costs resulting from obligations of the funding period unless carryover of unobligated balances is permitted, in which case the carryover balances may be charged for costs resulting from obligations of the subsequent funding period.

(b) Liquidation of obligations. A grantee must liquidate all obligations incurred under the award not later than 90 days after the end of the funding period (or as specified in a program regulation) to coincide with the submission of the annual Financial Status Report (SF-269). The Federal agency may extend this deadline at the request of the grantee.

(a) Basic rule: Costs and contributions acceptable. With the qualifications and exceptions listed in paragraph (b) of this section, a matching or cost sharing requirement may be satisfied by either or both of the following:

(1) Allowable costs incurred by the grantee, subgrantee or a cost-type contractor under the assistance agreement. This includes allowable costs borne by non-Federal grants or by others cash donations from non-Federal third parties.

(2) The value of third party in-kind contributions applicable to the period to which the cost sharing or matching requirements applies.

(b) Qualifications and exceptions—(1) Costs borne by other Federal grant agreements. Except as provided by Federal statute, a cost sharing or matching requirement may not be met by costs borne by another Federal grant. This prohibition does not apply to income earned by a grantee or subgrantee from a contract awarded under another Federal grant.

(2) General revenue sharing. For the purpose of this section, general revenue sharing funds distributed under 31 U.S.C. 6702 are not considered Federal grant funds.

(3) Cost or contributions counted towards other Federal costs-sharing requirements. Neither costs nor the values of third party in-kind contributions may count towards satisfying a cost sharing or matching requirement of a grant agreement if they have been or will be counted towards satisfying a cost sharing or matching requirement of another Federal grant agreement, a Federal procurement contract, or any other award of Federal funds.

(4) Costs financed by program income. Costs financed by program income, as defined in § 33.25, shall not count towards satisfying a cost sharing or matching requirement unless they are expressly permitted in the terms of the assistance agreement. (This use of general program income is described in § 33.25(g).)

(5) Services or property financed by income earned by contractors. Contractors under a grant may earn income from the activities carried out under the contract in addition to the amounts earned from the party awarding the contract. No costs of services or property supported by this income may count toward satisfying a cost sharing or matching requirement unless other provisions of the grant agreement expressly permit this kind of income to be used to meet the requirement.

(6) Records. Costs and third party in-kind contributions counting towards satisfying a cost sharing or matching requirement must be verifiable from the records of grantees and subgrantee or cost-type contractors. These records must show how the value placed on third party in-kind contributions was derived. To the extent feasible, volunteer services will be supported by the same methods that the organization uses to support the allocability of regular personnel costs.

(7) Special standards for third party in-kind contributions. (i) Third party in-kind contributions count towards satisfying a cost sharing or matching requirement only where, if the party receiving the contributions were to pay for them, the payments would be allowable costs.

(ii) Some third party in-kind contributions are goods and services that, if the grantee, subgrantee, or contractor receiving the contribution had to pay for them, the payments would have been an indirect costs. Costs sharing or matching credit for such contributions shall be given only if the grantee, subgrantee, or contractor has established, along with its regular indirect cost rate, a special rate for allocating to individual projects or programs the value of the contributions.

(iii) A third party in-kind contribution to a fixed-price contract may count towards satisfying a cost sharing or matching requirement only if it results in:

(A) An increase in the services or property provided under the contract (without additional cost to the grantee or subgrantee) or

(B) A cost savings to the grantee or subgrantee.

(iv) The values placed on third party in-kind contributions for cost sharing or matching purposes will conform to the rules in the succeeding sections of this part. If a third party in-kind contribution is a type not treated in those sections, the value placed upon it shall be fair and reasonable.

(c) Valuation of donated services—(1) Volunteer services. Unpaid services provided to a grantee or subgrantee by individuals will be valued at rates consistent with those ordinarily paid for similar work in the grantee's or subgrantee's organization. If the grantee or subgrantee does not have employees performing similar work, the rates will be consistent with those ordinarily paid by other employers for similar work in the same labor market. In either case, a reasonable amount for fringe benefits may be included in the valuation.

(2) Employees of other organizations. When an employer other than a grantee, subgrantee, or cost-type contractor furnishes free of charge the services of an employee in the employee's normal line of work, the services will be valued at the employee's regular rate of pay exclusive of the employee's fringe benefits and overhead costs. If the services are in a different line of work, paragraph (c)(1) of this section applies.

(d) Valuation of third party donated supplies and loaned equipment or space. (1) If a third party donates supplies, the contribution will be valued at the market value of the supplies at the time of donation.

(2) If a third party donates the use of equipment or space in a building but retains title, the contribution will be valued at the fair rental rate of the equipment or space.

(e) Valuation of third party donated equipment, buildings, and land. If a third party donates equipment, buildings, or land, and title passes to a grantee or subgrantee, the treatment of the donated property will depend upon the purpose of the grant or subgrant, as follows:

(1) Awards for capital expenditures. If the purpose of the grant or subgrant is to assist the grantee or subgrantee in the acquisition of property, the market value of that property at the time of donation may be counted as cost sharing or matching,

(2) Other awards. If assisting in the acquisition of property is not the purpose of the grant or subgrant, paragraphs (e)(2) (i) and (ii) of this section apply:

(i) If approval is obtained from the awarding agency, the market value at the time of donation of the donated equipment or buildings and the fair rental rate of the donated land may be counted as cost sharing or matching. In the case of a subgrant, the terms of the grant agreement may require that the approval be obtained from the Federal agency as well as the grantee. In all cases, the approval may be given only if a purchase of the equipment or rental of the land would be approved as an allowable direct cost. If any part of the donated property was acquired with Federal funds, only the non-Federal share of the property may be counted as cost-sharing or matching.

(ii) If approval is not obtained under paragraph (e)(2)(i) of this section, no amount may be counted for donated land, and only depreciation or use allowances may be counted for donated equipment and buildings. The depreciation or use allowances for this property are not treated as third party in-kind contributions. Instead, they are treated as costs incurred by the grantee or subgrantee. They are computed and allocated (usually as indirect costs) in accordance with the cost principles specified in § 33.22, in the same way as depreciation or use allowances for purchased equipment and buildings. The amount of depreciation or use allowances for donated equipment and buildings is based on the property's market value at the time it was donated.

(f) Valuation of grantee or subgrantee donated real property for construction/acquisition. If a grantee or subgrantee donates real property for a construction or facilities acquisition project, the current market value of that property may be counted as cost sharing or matching. If any part of the donated property was acquired with Federal funds, only the non-Federal share of the property may be counted as cost sharing or matching.

(g) Appraisal of real property. In some cases under paragraphs (d), (e) and (f) of this section, it will be necessary to establish the market value of land or a building or the fair rental rate of land or of space in a building. In these cases, the Federal agency may require the market value or fair rental value be set by an independent appraiser, and that the value or rate be certified by the grantee. This requirement will also be imposed by the grantee on subgrantees.

(a) General. Grantees are encouraged to earn income to defray program costs. Program income includes income from fees for services performed, from the use or rental of real or personal property acquired with grant funds, from the sale of commodities or items fabricated under a grant agreement, and from payments of principal and interest on loans made with grant funds. Except as otherwise provided in regulations of the Federal agency, program income does not include interest on grant funds, rebates, credits, discounts, refunds, etc. and interest earned on any of them.

(b) Definition of program income. Program income means gross income received by the grantee or subgrantee directly generated by a grant supported activity, or earned only as a result of the grant agreement during the grant period. “During the grant period” is the time between the effective date of the award and the ending date of the award reflected in the final financial report.

(c) Cost of generating program income. If authorized by Federal regulations or the grant agreement, costs incident to the generation of program income may be deducted from gross income to determine program income.

(d) Governmental revenues. Taxes, special assessments, levies, fines, and other such revenues raised by a grantee or subgrantee are not program income unless the revenues are specifically identified in the grant agreement or Federal agency regulations as program income.

(e) Royalties. Income from royalties and license fees for copyrighted material, patents, and inventions developed by a grantee or subgrantee is program income only if the revenues are specifically identified in the grant agreement or Federal agency regulations as program income. (See § 33.34.)

(f) Property. Proceeds from the sale of real property or equipment will be handled in accordance with the requirements of §§ 33.31 and 33.32.

(g) Use of program income. Program income shall be deducted from outlays which may be both Federal and non-Federal as described below, unless the Federal agency regulations or the grant agreement specify another alternative (or a combination of the alternatives). In specifying alternatives, the Federal agency may distinguish between income earned by the grantee and income earned by subgrantees and between the sources, kinds, or amounts of income. When Federal agencies authorize the alternatives in paragraphs (g) (2) and (3) of this section, program income in excess of any limits stipulated shall also be deducted from outlays.

(1) Deduction. Ordinarily program income shall be deducted from total allowable costs to determine the net allowable costs. Program income shall be used for current costs unless the Federal agency authorizes otherwise. Program income which the grantee did not anticipate at the time of the award shall be used to reduce the Federal agency and grantee contributions rather than to increase the funds committed to the project.

(2) Addition. When authorized, program income may be added to the funds committed to the grant agreement by the Federal agency and the grantee. The program income shall be used for the purposes and under the conditions of the grant agreement.

(3) Cost sharing or matching. When authorized, program income may be used to meet the cost sharing or matching requirement of the grant agreement. The amount of the Federal grant award remains the same.

(h) Income after the award period. There are no Federal requirements governing the disposition of program income earned after the end of the award period (i.e., until the ending date of the final financial report, see paragraph (a) of this section), unless the terms of the agreement or the Federal agency regulations provide otherwise.

(a) Basic rule. Grantees and subgrantees are responsible for obtaining audits in accordance with the Single Audit Act Amendments of 1996 (31 U.S.C. 7501-7507) and revised OMB Circular A-133, “Audits of States, Local Governments, and Non-Profit Organizations.” The audits shall be made by an independent auditor in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards covering financial audits.

(b) Subgrantees. State or local governments, as those terms are defined for purposes of the Single Audit Act Amendments of 1996, that provide Federal awards to a subgrantee, which expends $500,000 or more (or other amount as specified by OMB) in Federal awards in a fiscal year, shall:

(1) Determine whether State or local subgrantees have met the audit requirements of the Act and whether subgrantees covered by OMB Circular A-110, “Uniform Administrative Requirements for Grants and Agreements with Institutions of Higher Education, Hospitals, and Other Non-Profit Organizations,” have met the audit requirements of the Act. Commercial contractors (private for-profit and private and governmental organizations) providing goods and services to State and local governments are not required to have a single audit performed. State and local governments should use their own procedures to ensure that the contractor has complied with laws and regulations affecting the expenditure of Federal funds;

(2) Determine whether the subgrantee spent Federal assistance funds provided in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. This may be accomplished by reviewing an audit of the subgrantee made in accordance with the Act, Circular A-110, or through other means (e.g., program reviews) if the subgrantee has not had such an audit;

(3) Ensure that appropriate corrective action is taken within six months after receipt of the audit report in instance of noncompliance with Federal laws and regulations;

(4) Consider whether subgrantee audits necessitate adjustment of the grantee's own records; and

(5) Require each subgrantee to permit independent auditors to have access to the records and financial statements.

(c) Auditor selection. In arranging for audit services, § 33.36 shall be followed.

(a) General. Grantees and subgrantees are permitted to rebudget within the approved direct cost budget to meet unanticipated requirements and may make limited program changes to the approved project. However, unless waived by the awarding agency, certain types of post-award changes in budgets and projects shall require the prior written approval of the awarding agency.

(b) Relation to cost principles. The applicable cost principles (see § 33.22) contain requirements for prior approval of certain types of costs. Except where waived, those requirements apply to all grants and subgrants even if paragraphs (c) through (f) of this section do not.

(c) Budget changes—(1) Nonconstruction projects. Except as stated in other regulations or an award document, grantees or subgrantees shall obtain the prior approval of the awarding agency whenever any of the following changes is anticipated under a nonconstruction award:

(i) Any revision which would result in the need for additional funding.

(ii) Unless waived by the awarding agency, cumulative transfers among direct cost categories, or, if applicable, among separately budgeted programs, projects, functions, or activities which exceed or are expected to exceed ten percent of the current total approved budget, whenever the awarding agency's share exceeds $100,000.

(iii) Transfer of funds allotted for training allowances (i.e., from direct payments to trainees to other expense categories).

(2) Construction projects. Grantees and subgrantees shall obtain prior written approval for any budget revision which would result in the need for additional funds.

(3) Combined construction and nonconstruction projects. When a grant or subgrant provides funding for both construction and nonconstruction activities, the grantee or subgrantee must obtain prior written approval from the awarding agency before making any fund or budget transfer from nonconstruction to construction or vice versa.

(d) Programmatic changes. Grantees or subgrantees must obtain the prior approval of the awarding agency whenever any of the following actions is anticipated:

(1) Any revision of the scope or objectives of the project (regardless of whether there is an associated budget revision requiring prior approval).

(2) Need to extend the period of availability of funds.

(3) Changes in key persons in cases where specified in an application or a grant award. In research projects, a change in the project director or principal investigator shall always require approval unless waived by the awarding agency.

(4) Under nonconstruction projects, contracting out, subgranting (if authorized by law) or otherwise obtaining the services of a third party to perform activities which are central to the purposes of the award. This approval requirement is in addition to the approval requirements of § 33.36 but does not apply to the procurement of equipment, supplies, and general support services.

(e) Additional prior approval requirements. The awarding agency may not require prior approval for any budget revision which is not described in paragraph (c) of this section.

(f) Requesting prior approval. (1) A request for prior approval of any budget revision will be in the same budget formal the grantee used in its application and shall be accompanied by a narrative justification for the proposed revision.

(2) A request for a prior approval under the applicable Federal cost principles (see § 33.22) may be made by letter.

(3) A request by a subgrantee for prior approval will be addressed in writing to the grantee. The grantee will promptly review such request and shall approve or disapprove the request in writing. A grantee will not approve any budget or project revision which is inconsistent with the purpose or terms and conditions of the Federal grant to the grantee. If the revision, requested by the subgrantee would result in a change to the grantee's approved project which requires Federal prior approval, the grantee will obtain the Federal agency's approval before approving the subgrantee's request.

(a) Title. Subject to the obligations and conditions set forth in this section, title to real property acquired under a grant or subgrant will vest upon acquisition in the grantee or subgrantee respectively.

(b) Use. Except as otherwise provided by Federal statutes, real property will be used for the originally authorized purposes as long as needed for that purposes, and the grantee or subgrantee shall not dispose of or encumber its title or other interests.

(c) Disposition. When real property is no longer needed for the originally authorized purpose, the grantee or subgrantee will request disposition instructions from the awarding agency. The instructions will provide for one of the following alternatives:

(1) Retention of title. Retain title after compensating the awarding agency. The amount paid to the awarding agency will be computed by applying the awarding agency's percentage of participation in the cost of the original purchase to the fair market value of the property. However, in those situations where a grantee or subgrantee is disposing of real property acquired with grant funds and acquiring replacement real property under the same program, the net proceeds from the disposition may be used as an offset to the cost of the replacement property.

(2) Sale of property. Sell the property and compensate the awarding agency. The amount due to the awarding agency will be calculated by applying the awarding agency's percentage of participation in the cost of the original purchase to the proceeds of the sale after deduction of any actual and reasonable selling and fixing-up expenses. If the grant is still active, the net proceeds from sale may be offset against the original cost of the property. When a grantee or subgrantee is directed to sell property, sales procedures shall be followed that provide for competition to the extent practicable and result in the highest possible return.

(3) Transfer of title. Transfer title to the awarding agency or to a third-party designated/approved by the awarding agency. The grantee or subgrantee shall be paid an amount calculated by applying the grantee or subgrantee's percentage of participation in the purchase of the real property to the current fair market value of the property.

(a) Title. Subject to the obligations and conditions set forth in this section, title to equipment acquired under a grant or subgrant will vest upon acquisition in the grantee or subgrantee respectively.

(b) States. A State will use, manage, and dispose of equipment acquired under a grant by the State in accordance with State laws and procedures. Other grantees and subgrantees will follow paragraphs (c) through (e) of this section.

(c) Use. (1) Equipment shall be used by the grantee or subgrantee in the program or project for which it was acquired as long as needed, whether or not the project or program continues to be supported by Federal funds. When no longer needed for the original program or project, the equipment may be used in other activities currently or previously supported by a Federal agency.

(2) The grantee or subgrantee shall also make equipment available for use on other projects or programs currently or previously supported by the Federal Government, providing such use will not interfere with the work on the projects or program for which it was originally acquired. First preference for other use shall be given to other programs or projects supported by the awarding agency. User fees should be considered if appropriate.

(3) Notwithstanding the encouragement in § 33.25(a) to earn program income, the grantee or subgrantee must not use equipment acquired with grant funds to provide services for a fee to compete unfairly with private companies that provide equivalent services, unless specifically permitted or contemplated by Federal statute.

(4) When acquiring replacement equipment, the grantee or subgrantee may use the equipment to be replaced as a trade-in or sell the property and use the proceeds to offset the cost of the replacement property, subject to the approval of the awarding agency.

(d) Management requirements. Procedures for managing equipment (including replacement equipment), whether acquired in whole or in part with grant funds, until disposition takes place will, as a minimum, meet the following requirements:

(1) Property records must be maintained that include a description of the property, a serial number or other identification number, the source of property, who holds title, the acquisition date, and cost of the property, percentage of Federal participation in the cost of the property, the location, use and condition of the property, and any ultimate disposition data including the date of disposal and sale price of the property.

(2) A physical inventory of the property must be taken and the results reconciled with the property records at least once every two years.

(3) A control system must be developed to ensure adequate safeguards to prevent loss, damage, or theft of the property. Any loss, damage, or theft shall be investigated.

(4) Adequate maintenance procedures must be developed to keep the property in good condition.

(5) If the grantee or subgrantee is authorized or required to sell the property, proper sales procedures must be established to ensure the highest possible return.

(e) Disposition. When original or replacement equipment acquired under a grant or subgrant is no longer needed for the original project or program or for other activities currently or previously supported by a Federal agency, disposition of the equipment will be made as follows:

(1) Items of equipment with a current per-unit fair market value of less than $5,000 may be retained, sold or otherwise disposed of with no further obligation to the awarding agency.

(2) Items of equipment with a current per unit fair market value in excess of $5,000 may be retained or sold and the awarding agency shall have a right to an amount calculated by multiplying the current market value or proceeds from sale by the awarding agency's share of the equipment.

(3) In cases where a grantee or subgrantee fails to take appropriate disposition actions, the awarding agency may direct the grantee or subgrantee to take excess and disposition actions.

(f) Federal equipment. In the event a grantee or subgrantee is provided federally-owned equipment:

(1) Title will remain vested in the Federal Government.

(2) Grantees or subgrantees will manage the equipment in accordance with Federal agency rules and procedures, and submit an annual inventory listing.

(3) When the equipment is no longer needed, the grantee or subgrantee will request disposition instructions from the Federal agency.

(g) Right to transfer title. The Federal awarding agency may reserve the right to transfer title to the Federal Government or a third part named by the awarding agency when such a third party is otherwise eligible under existing statutes. Such transfers shall be subject to the following standards:

(1) The property shall be identified in the grant or otherwise made known to the grantee in writing.

(2) The Federal awarding agency shall issue disposition instruction within 120 calendar days after the end of the Federal support of the project for which it was acquired. If the Federal awarding agency fails to issue disposition instructions within the 120 calendar-day period the grantee shall follow § 33.32(e).

(3) When title to equipment is transferred, the grantee shall be paid an amount calculated by applying the percentage of participation in the purchase to the current fair market value of the property.

(a) Title. Title to supplies acquired under a grant or subgrant will vest, upon acquisition, in the grantee or subgrantee respectively.

(b) Disposition. If there is a residual inventory of unused supplies exceeding $5,000 in total aggregate fair market value upon termination or completion of the award, and if the supplies are not needed for any other federally sponsored programs or projects, the grantee or subgrantee shall compensate the awarding agency for its share.

The Federal awarding agency reserves a royalty-free, nonexclusive, and irrevocable license to reproduce, publish or otherwise use, and to authorize others to use, for Federal Government purposes:

(a) The copyright in any work developed under a grant, subgrant, or contract under a grant or subgrant; and

(b) Any rights of copyright to which a grantee, subgrantee or a contractor purchases ownership with grant support.

Grantees and subgrantees must comply with the requirements of OMB guidance in Subpart C, 2 CFR part 180, as implemented by the Department of Defense in 2 CFR part 1125. Those requirements include restrictions on entering into a covered transaction with any party which is debarred or suspended or is otherwise excluded from or ineligible for participation in Federal assistance programs under Executive Order 12549, “Debarment and Suspension.”

(a) States. When procuring property and services under a grant, a State will follow the same policies and procedures it uses for procurements from its non-Federal funds. The State will ensure that every purchase order or other contract includes any clauses required by Federal statutes and executive orders and their implementing regulations. Other grantees and subgrantees will follow paragraphs (b) through (i) in this section.

(b) Procurement standards. (1) Grantees and subgrantees will use their own procurement procedures which reflect applicable State and local laws and regulations, provided that the procurements conform to applicable Federal law and the standards identified in this section.

(2) Grantees and subgrantees will maintain a contract administration system which ensures that contractors perform in accordance with the terms, conditions, and specifications of their contracts or purchase orders.

(3) Grantees and subgrantees will maintain a written code of standards of conduct governing the performance of their employees engaged in the award and administration of contracts. No employee, officer or agent of the grantee or subgrantee shall participate in selection, or in the award or administration of a contract supported by Federal funds if a conflict of interest, real or apparent, would be involved. Such a conflict would arise when:

(i) The employee, officer or agent,

(ii) Any member of his immediate family,

(iii) His or her partner, or

(iv) An organization which employs, or is about to employ, any of the above, has a financial or other interest in the firm selected for award. The grantee's or subgrantee's officers, employees or agents will neither solicit nor accept gratuities, favors or anything of monetary value from contractors, potential contractors, or parties to subagreements. Grantee and subgrantees may set minimum rules where the financial interest is not substantial or the gift is an unsolicited item of nominal intrinsic value. To the extent permitted by State or local law or regulations, such standards or conduct will provide for penalties, sanctions, or other disciplinary actions for violations of such standards by the grantee's and subgrantee's officers, employees, or agents, or by contractors or their agents. The awarding agency may in regulation provide additional prohibitions relative to real, apparent, or potential conflicts of interest.

(4) Grantee and subgrantee procedures will provide for a review of proposed procurements to avoid purchase of unnecessary or duplicative items. Consideration should be given to consolidating or breaking out procurements to obtain a more economical purchase. Where appropriate, an analysis will be made of lease versus purchase alternatives, and any other appropriate analysis to determine the most economical approach.

(5) To foster greater economy and efficiency, grantees and subgrantees are encouraged to enter into State and local intergovernmental agreements for procurement or use of common goods and services.

(6) Grantees and subgrantees are encouraged to use Federal excess and surplus property in lieu of purchasing new equipment and property whenever such use is feasible and reduces project costs.

(7) Grantees and subgrantees are encouraged to use value engineering clauses in contracts for construction projects of sufficient size to offer reasonable opportunities for cost reductions. Value engineering is a systematic and creative anaylsis of each contract item or task to ensure that its essential function is provided at the overall lower cost.

(8) Grantees and subgrantees will make awards only to responsible contractors possessing the ability to perform successfully under the terms and conditions of a proposed procurement. Consideration will be given to such matters as contractor integrity, compliance with public policy, record of past performance, and financial and technical resources.

(9) Grantees and subgrantees will maintain records sufficient to detail the significant history of a procurement. These records will include, but are not necessarily limited to the following: rationale for the method of procurement, selection of contract type, contractor selection or rejection, and the basis for the contract price.

(10) Grantees and subgrantees will use time and material type contracts only—

(i) After a determination that no other contract is suitable, and

(ii) If the contract includes a ceiling price that the contractor exceeds at its own risk.

(11) Grantees and subgrantees alone will be responsible, in accordance with good administrative practice and sound business judgment, for the settlement of all contractual and administrative issues arising out of procurements. These issues include, but are not limited to source evaluation, protests, disputes, and claims. These standards do not relieve the grantee or subgrantee of any contractual responsibilities under its contracts. Federal agencies will not substitute their judgment for that of the grantee or subgrantee unless the matter is primarily a Federal concern. Violations of law will be referred to the local, State, or Federal authority having proper jurisdiction.

(12) Grantees and subgrantees will have protest procedures to handle and resolve disputes relating to their procurements and shall in all instances disclose information regarding the protest to the awarding agency. A protestor must exhaust all administrative remedies with the grantee and subgrantee before pursuing a protest with the Federal agency. Reviews of protests by the Federal agency will be limited to:

(i) Violations of Federal law or regulations and the standards of this section (violations of State or local law will be under the jurisdiction of State or local authorities) and

(ii) Violations of the grantee's or subgrantee's protest procedures for failure to review a complaint or protest. Protests received by the Federal agency other than those specified above will be referred to the grantee or subgrantee.

(c) Competition. (1) All procurement transactions will be conducted in a manner providing full and open competition consistent with the standards of § 33.36. Some of the situations considered to be restrictive of competition include but are not limited to:

(i) Placing unreasonable requirements on firms in order for them to qualify to do business,

(ii) Requiring unnecessary experience and excessive bonding,

(iii) Noncompetitive pricing practices between firms or between affiliated companies,

(iv) Noncompetitive awards to consultants that are on retainer contracts,

(v) Organizational conflicts of interest,

(vi) Specifying only a “brand name” product instead of allowing “an equal” product to be offered and describing the performance of other relevant requirements of the procurement, and

(vii) Any arbitrary action in the procurement process.

(2) Grantees and subgrantees will conduct procurements in a manner that prohibits the use of statutorily or administratively imposed in-State or local geographical preferences in the evaluation of bids or proposals, except in those cases where applicable Federal statutes expressly mandate or encourage geographic preference. Nothing in this section preempts State licensing laws. When contracting for architectural and engineering (A/E) services, geographic location may be a selection criteria provided its application leaves an appropriate number of qualified firms, given the nature and size of the project, to compete for the contract.

(3) Grantees will have written selection procedures for procurement transactions. These procedures will ensure that all solicitations:

(i) Incorporate a clear and accurate description of the technical requirements for the material, product, or service to be procured. Such description shall not, in competitive procurements, contain features which unduly restrict competition. The description may include a statement of the qualitative nature of the material, product or service to be procured, and when necessary, shall set forth those minimum essential characteristics and standards to which it must conform if it is to satisfy its intended use. Detailed product specifications should be avoided if at all possible. When it is impractical or uneconomical to make a clear and accurate description of the technical requirements, a “brand name or equal” description may be used as a means to define the performance or other salient requirements of a procurement. The specific features of the named brand which must be met by offerors shall be clearly stated; and

(ii) Identify all requirements which the offerors must fulfill and all other factors to be used in evaluating bids or proposals.

(4) Grantees and subgrantees will ensure that all prequalified lists of persons, firms, or products which are used in acquiring goods and services are current and include enough qualified sources to ensure maximum open and free competition. Also, grantees and subgrantees will not preclude potential bidders from qualifying during the solicitation period.

(d) Methods of procurement to be followed—(1) Procurement by small purchase procedures. Small purchase procedures are those relatively simple and informal procurement methods for securing services, supplies, or other property that do not cost more than the simplified acquisition threshold fixed at 41 U.S.C. 403(11) (currently set at $100,000). If small purchase procedures are used, price or rate quotations shall be obtained from an adequate number of qualified sources.

(2) Procurement by sealed bids (formal advertising). Bids are publicly solicited and a firm-fixed-price contract (lump sum or unit price) is awarded to the responsible bidder whose bid, conforming with all the material terms and conditions of the invitation for bids, is the lowest in price. The sealed bid method is the preferred method for procuring construction, if the conditions in § 33.36(d)(2)(i) apply.

(i) In order for sealed bidding to be feasible, the following conditions should be present:

(A) A complete, adequate, and realistic specification or purchase description is available;

(B) Two or more responsible bidders are willing and able to compete effectively and for the business; and

(C) The procurement lends itself to a firm fixed price contract and the selection of the successful bidder can be made principally on the basis of price.

(ii) If sealed bids are used, the following requirements apply:

(A) The invitation for bids will be publicly advertised and bids shall be solicited from an adequate number of known suppliers, providing them sufficient time prior to the date set for opening the bids;

(B) The invitation for bids, which will include any specifications and pertinent attachments, shall define the items or services in order for the bidder to properly respond;

(C) All bids will be publicly opened at the time and place prescribed in the invitation for bids;

(D) A firm fixed-price contract award will be made in writing to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder. Where specified in bidding documents, factors such as discounts, transportation cost, and life cycle costs shall be considered in determining which bid is lowest. Payment discounts will only be used to determine the low bid when prior experience indicates that such discounts are usually taken advantage of; and

(E) Any or all bids may be rejected if there is a sound documented reason.

(3) Procurement by competitive proposals. The technique of competitive proposals is normally conducted with more than one source submitting an offer, and either a fixed-price or cost-reimbursement type contract is awarded. It is generally used when conditions are not appropriate for the use of sealed bids. If this method is used, the following requirements apply:

(i) Requests for proposals will be publicized and identify all evaluation factors and their relative importance. Any response to publicized requests for proposals shall be honored to the maximum extent practical;

(ii) Proposals will be solicited from an adequate number of qualified sources;

(iii) Grantees and subgrantees will have a method for conducting technical evaluations of the proposals received and for selecting awardees;

(iv) Awards will be made to the responsible firm whose proposal is most advantageous to the program, with price and other factors considered; and

(v) Grantees and subgrantees may use competitive proposal procedures for qualifications-based procurement of architectural/engineering (A/E) professional services whereby competitors' qualifications are evaluated and the most qualified competitor is selected, subject to negotiation of fair and reasonable compensation. The method, where price is not used as a selection factor, can only be used in procurement of A/E professional services. It cannot be used to purchase other types of services though A/E firms are a potential source to perform the proposed effort.

(4) Procurement by noncompetitive proposals is procurement through solicitation of a proposal from only one source, or after solicitation of a number of sources, competition is determined inadequate.

(i) Procurement by noncompetitive proposals may be used only when the award of a contract is infeasible under small purchase procedures, sealed bids or competitive proposals and one of the following circumstances applies:

(A) The item is available only from a single source;

(B) The public exigency or emergency for the requirement will not permit a delay resulting from competitive solicitation;

(C) The awarding agency authorizes noncompetitive proposals; or

(D) After solicitation of a number of sources, competition is determined inadequate.

(ii) Cost analysis, i.e., verifying the proposed cost data, the projections of the data, and the evaluation of the specific elements of costs and profits, is required.

(iii) Grantees and subgrantees may be required to submit the proposed procurement to the awarding agency for pre-award review in accordance with paragraph (g) of this section.

(e) Contracting with small and minority firms, women's business enterprise and labor surplus area firms. (1) The grantee and subgrantee will take all necessary affirmative steps to assure that minority firms, women's business enterprises, and labor surplus area firms are used when possible.

(2) Affirmative steps shall include:

(i) Placing qualified small and minority businesses and women's business enterprises on solicitation lists;

(ii) Assuring that small and minority businesses, and women's business enterprises are solicited whenever they are potential sources;

(iii) Dividing total requirements, when economically feasible, into smaller tasks or quantities to permit maximum participation by small and minority business, and women's business enterprises;

(iv) Establishing delivery schedules, where the requirement permits, which encourage participation by small and minority business, and women's business enterprises;

(v) Using the services and assistance of the Small Business Administration, and the Minority Business Development Agency of the Department of Commerce; and

(vi) Requiring the prime contractor, if subcontracts are to be let, to take the affirmative steps listed in paragraphs (e)(2) (i) through (v) of this section.

(f) Contract cost and price. (1) Grantees and subgrantees must perform a cost or price analysis in connection with every procurement action including contract modifications. The method and degree of analysis is dependent on the facts surrounding the particular procurement situation, but as a starting point, grantees must make independent estimates before receiving bids or proposals. A cost analysis must be performed when the offeror is required to submit the elements of his estimated cost, e.g., under professional, consulting, and architectural engineering services contracts. A cost analysis will be necessary when adequate price competition is lacking, and for sole source procurements, including contract modifications or change orders, unless price resonableness can be established on the basis of a catalog or market price of a commercial product sold in substantial quantities to the general public or based on prices set by law or regulation. A price analysis will be used in all other instances to determine the reasonableness of the proposed contract price.

(2) Grantees and subgrantees will negotiate profit as a separate element of the price for each contract in which there is no price competition and in all cases where cost analysis is performed. To establish a fair and reasonable profit, consideration will be given to the complexity of the work to be performed, the risk borne by the contractor, the contractor's investment, the amount of subcontracting, the quality of its record of past performance, and industry profit rates in the surrounding geographical area for similar work.

(3) Costs or prices based on estimated costs for contracts under grants will be allowable only to the extent that costs incurred or cost estimates included in negotiated prices are consistent with Federal cost principles (see § 33.22). Grantees may reference their own cost principles that comply with the applicable Federal cost principles.

(4) The cost plus a percentage of cost and percentage of construction cost methods of contracting shall not be used.

(g) Awarding agency review. (1) Grantees and subgrantees must make available, upon request of the awarding agency, technical specifications on proposed procurements where the awarding agency believes such review is needed to ensure that the item and/or service specified is the one being proposed for purchase. This review generally will take place prior to the time the specification is incorporated into a solicitation document. However, if the grantee or subgrantee desires to have the review accomplished after a solicitation has been developed, the awarding agency may still review the specifications, with such review usually limited to the technical aspects of the proposed purchase.

(2) Grantees and subgrantees must on request make available for awarding agency pre-award review procurement documents, such as requests for proposals or invitations for bids, independent cost estimates, etc. when:

(i) A grantee's or subgrantee's procurement procedures or operation fails to comply with the procurement standards in this section; or

(ii) The procurement is expected to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold and is to be awarded without competition or only one bid or offer is received in response to a solicitation; or

(iii) The procurement, which is expected to exceed the simplified acquisition threshold, specifies a “brand name” product; or

(iv) The proposed award is more than the simplified acquisition threshold and is to be awarded to other than the apparent low bidder under a sealed bid procurement; or

(v) A proposed contract modification changes the scope of a contract or increases the contract amount by more than the simplified acquisition threshold.

(3) A grantee or subgrantee will be exempt from the pre-award review in paragraph (g)(2) of this section if the awarding agency determines that its procurement systems comply with the standards of this section.

(i) A grantee or subgrantee may request that its procurement system be reviewed by the awarding agency to determine whether its system meets these standards in order for its system to be certified. Generally, these reviews shall occur where there is a continuous high-dollar funding, and third-party contracts are awarded on a regular basis.

(ii) A grantee or subgrantee may self-certify its procurement system. Such self-certification shall not limit the awarding agency's right to survey the system. Under a self-certification procedure, awarding agencies may wish to rely on written assurances from the grantee or subgrantee that it is complying with these standards. A grantee or subgrantee will cite specific procedures, regulations, standards, etc., as being in compliance with these requirements and have its system available for review.

(h) Bonding requirements. For construction or facility improvement contracts or subcontracts exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold, the awarding agency may accept the bonding policy and requirements of the grantee or subgrantee provided the awarding agency has made a determination that the awarding agency's interest is adequately protected. If such a determination has not been made, the minimum requirements shall be as follows:

(1) A bid guarantee from each bidder equivalent to five percent of the bid price. The “bid guarantee” shall consist of a firm commitment such as a bid bond, certified check, or other negotiable instrument accompanying a bid as assurance that the bidder will, upon acceptance of his bid, execute such contractual documents as may be required within the time specified.

(2) A performance bond on the part of the contractor for 100 percent of the contract price. A “performance bond” is one executed in connection with a contract to secure fulfillment of all the contractor's obligations under such contract.

(3) A payment bond on the part of the contractor for 100 percent of the contract price. A “payment bond” is one executed in connection with a contract to assure payment as required by law of all persons supplying labor and material in the execution of the work provided for in the contract.

(i) Contract provisions. A grantee's and subgrantee's contracts must contain provisions in paragraph (i) of this section. Federal agencies are permitted to require changes, remedies, changed conditions, access and records retention, suspension of work, and other clauses approved by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy.

(1) Administrative, contractual, or legal remedies in instances where contractors violate or breach contract terms, and provide for such sanctions and penalties as may be appropriate. (Contracts more than the simplified acquisition threshold)

(2) Termination for cause and for convenience by the grantee or subgrantee including the manner by which it will be effected and the basis for settlement. (All contracts in excess of $10,000)

(3) Compliance with Executive Order 11246 of September 24, 1965, entitled “Equal Employment Opportunity,” as amended by Executive Order 11375 of October 13, 1967, and as supplemented in Department of Labor regulations (41 CFR chapter 60). (All construction contracts awarded in excess of $10,000 by grantees and their contractors or subgrantees)

(4) Compliance with the Copeland “Anti-Kickback” Act (18 U.S.C. 874) as supplemented in Department of Labor regulations (29 CFR Part 3). (All contracts and subgrants for construction or repair)

(5) Compliance with the Davis-Bacon Act (40 U.S.C. 276a to 276a-7) as supplemented by Department of Labor regulations (29 CFR Part 5). (Construction contracts in excess of $2000 awarded by grantees and subgrantees when required by Federal grant program legislation)

(6) Compliance with Sections 103 and 107 of the Contract Work Hours and Safety Standards Act (40 U.S.C. 327-330) as supplemented by Department of Labor regulations (29 CFR Part 5). (Construction contracts awarded by grantees and subgrantees in excess of $2000, and in excess of $2500 for other contracts which involve the employment of mechanics or laborers)

(7) Notice of awarding agency requirements and regulations pertaining to reporting.

(8) Notice of awarding agency requirements and regulations pertaining to patent rights with respect to any discovery or invention which arises or is developed in the course of or under such contract.

(9) Awarding agency requirements and regulations pertaining to copyrights and rights in data.

(10) Access by the grantee, the subgrantee, the Federal grantor agency, the Comptroller General of the United States, or any of their duly authorized representatives to any books, documents, papers, and records of the contractor which are directly pertinent to that specific contract for the purpose of making audit, examination, excerpts, and transcriptions.

(11) Retention of all required records for three years after grantees or subgrantees make final payments and all other pending matters are closed.

(12) Compliance with all applicable standards, orders, or requirements issued under section 306 of the Clean Air Act (42 U.S.C. 1857(h)), section 508 of the Clean Water Act (33 U.S.C. 1368), Executive Order 11738, and Environmental Protection Agency regulations (40 CFR part 15). (Contracts, subcontracts, and subgrants of amounts in excess of $100,000)

(13) Mandatory standards and policies relating to energy efficiency which are contained in the state energy conservation plan issued in compliance with the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (Pub. L. 94-163, 89 Stat. 871).

(a) States. States shall follow State law and procedures when awarding and administering subgrants (whether on a cost reimbursement or fixed amount basis) of financial assistance to local and Indian tribal governments. States shall:

(1) Ensure that every subgrant includes any clauses required by Federal statute and executive orders and their implementing regulations;

(2) Ensure that subgrantees are aware of requirements imposed upon them by Federal statute and regulation;

(3) Ensure that a provision for compliance with § 33.42 is placed in every cost reimbursement subgrant; and

(4) Conform any advances of grant funds to subgrantees substantially to the same standards of timing and amount that apply to cash advances by Federal agencies.

(b) All other grantees. All other grantees shall follow the provisions of this part which are applicable to awarding agencies when awarding and administering subgrants (whether on a cost reimbursement or fixed amount basis) of financial assistance to local and Indian tribal governments. Grantees shall:

(1) Ensure that every subgrant includes a provision for compliance with this part;

(2) Ensure that every subgrant includes any clauses required by Federal statute and executive orders and their implementing regulations; and

(3) Ensure that subgrantees are aware of requirements imposed upon them by Federal statutes and regulations.

(c) Exceptions. By their own terms, certain provisions of this part do not apply to the award and administration of subgrants:

(1) Section 33.10;

(2) Section 33.11;

(3) The letter-of-credit procedures specified in Treasury Regulations at 31 CFR part 205, cited in § 33.21; and

(4) Section 33.50.

(a) Monitoring by grantees. Grantees are responsible for managing the day-to-day operations of grant and subgrant supported activities. Grantees must monitor grant and subgrant supported activities to assure compliance with applicable Federal requirements and that performance goals are being achieved. Grantee monitoring must cover each program, function or activity.

(b) Nonconstruction performance reports. The Federal agency may, if it decides that performance information available from subsequent applications contains sufficient information to meet its programmatic needs, require the grantee to submit a performance report only upon expiration or termination of grant support. Unless waived by the Federal agency this report will be due on the same date as the final Financial Status Report.

(1) Grantees shall submit annual performance reports unless the awarding agency requires quarterly or semi-annual reports. However, performance reports will not be required more frequently than quarterly. Annual reports shall be due 90 days after the grant year, quarterly or semi-annual reports shall be due 30 days after the reporting period. The final performance report will be due 90 days after the expiration or termination of grant support. If a justified request is submitted by a grantee, the Federal agency may extend the due date for any performance report. Additionally, requirements for unnecessary performance reports may be waived by the Federal agency.

(2) Performance reports will contain, for each grant, brief information on the following:

(i) A comparison of actual accomplishments to the objectives established for the period. Where the output of the project can be quantified, a computation of the cost per unit of output may be required if that information will be useful.

(ii) The reasons for slippage if established objectives were not met.

(iii) Additional pertinent information including, when appropriate, analysis and explanation of cost overruns or high unit costs.

(3) Grantees will not be required to submit more than the original and two copies of performance reports.

(4) Grantees will adhere to the standards in this section in prescribing performance reporting requirements for subgrantees.

(c) Construction performance reports. For the most part, on-site technical inspections and certified percentage-of-completion data are relied on heavily by Federal agencies to monitor progress under construction grants and subgrants. The Federal agency will require additional formal performance reports only when considered necessary, and never more frequently than quarterly.

(d) Significant developments. Events may occur between the scheduled performance reporting dates which have significant impact upon the grant or subgrant supported activity. In such cases, the grantee must inform the Federal agency as soon as the following types of conditions become known:

(1) Problems, delays, or adverse conditions which will materially impair the ability to meet the objective of the award. This disclosure must include a statement of the action taken, or contemplated, and any assistance needed to resolve the situation.

(2) Favorable developments which enable meeting time schedules and objectives sooner or at less cost than anticipated or producing more beneficial results than originally planned.

(e) Federal agencies may make site visits as warranted by program needs.

(f) Waivers, extensions. (1) Federal agencies may waive any performance report required by this part if not needed.

(2) The grantee may waive any performance report from a subgrantee when not needed. The grantee may extend the due date for any performance report from a subgrantee if the grantee will still be able to meet its performance reporting obligations to the Federal agency.

(a) General. (1) Except as provided in paragraphs (a) (2) and (5) of this section, grantees will use only the forms specified in paragraphs (a) through (e) of this section, and such supplementary or other forms as may from time to time be authorized by OMB, for:

(i) Submitting financial reports to Federal agencies, or

(ii) Requesting advances or reimbursements when letters of credit are not used.

(2) Grantees need not apply the forms prescribed in this section in dealing with their subgrantees. However, grantees shall not impose more burdensome requirements on subgrantees.

(3) Grantees shall follow all applicable standard and supplemental Federal agency instructions approved by OMB to the extend required under the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1980 for use in connection with forms specified in paragraphs (b) through (e) of this section. Federal agencies may issue substantive supplementary instructions only with the approval of OMB. Federal agencies may shade out or instruct the grantee to disregard any line item that the Federal agency finds unnecessary for its decisionmaking purposes.

(4) Grantees will not be required to submit more than the original and two copies of forms required under this part.

(5) Federal agencies may provide computer outputs to grantees to expedite or contribute to the accuracy of reporting. Federal agencies may accept the required information from grantees in machine usable format or computer printouts instead of prescribed forms.

(6) Federal agencies may waive any report required by this section if not needed.

(7) Federal agencies may extend the due date of any financial report upon receiving a justified request from a grantee.

(b) Financial Status Report—(1) Form. Grantees will use Standard Form 269 or 269A, Financial Status Report, to report the status of funds for all nonconstruction grants and for construction grants when required in accordance with § 33.41(e)(2)(iii).

(2) Accounting basis. Each grantee will report program outlays and program income on a cash or accrual basis as prescribed by the awarding agency. If the Federal agency requires accrual information and the grantee's accounting records are not normally kept on the accural basis, the grantee shall not be required to convert its accounting system but shall develop such accrual information through and analysis of the documentation on hand.

(3) Frequency. The Federal agency may prescribe the frequency of the report for each project or program. However, the report will not be required more frequently than quarterly. If the Federal agency does not specify the frequency of the report, it will be submitted annually. A final report will be required upon expiration or termination of grant support.

(4) Due date. When reports are required on a quarterly or semiannual basis, they will be due 30 days after the reporting period. When required on an annual basis, they will be due 90 days after the grant year. Final reports will be due 90 days after the expiration or termination of grant support.

(c) Federal Cash Transactions Report—(1) Form. (i) For grants paid by letter or credit, Treasury check advances or electronic transfer of funds, the grantee will submit the Standard Form 272, Federal Cash Transactions Report, and when necessary, its continuation sheet, Standard Form 272a, unless the terms of the award exempt the grantee from this requirement.

(ii) These reports will be used by the Federal agency to monitor cash advanced to grantees and to obtain disbursement or outlay information for each grant from grantees. The format of the report may be adapted as appropriate when reporting is to be accomplished with the assistance of automatic data processing equipment provided that the information to be submitted is not changed in substance.

(2) Forecasts of Federal cash requirements. Forecasts of Federal cash requirements may be required in the “Remarks” section of the report.

(3) Cash in hands of subgrantees. When considered necessary and feasible by the Federal agency, grantees may be required to report the amount of cash advances in excess of three days' needs in the hands of their subgrantees or contractors and to provide short narrative explanations of actions taken by the grantee to reduce the excess balances.

(4) Frequency and due date. Grantees must submit the report no later than 15 working days following the end of each quarter. However, where an advance either by letter of credit or electronic transfer of funds is authorized at an annualized rate of one million dollars or more, the Federal agency may require the report to be submitted within 15 working days following the end of each month.

(d) Request for advance or reimbursement—(1) Advance payments. Requests for Treasury check advance payments will be submitted on Standard Form 270, Request for Advance or Reimbursement. (This form will not be used for drawdowns under a letter of credit, electronic funds transfer or when Treasury check advance payments are made to the grantee automatically on a predetermined basis.)

(2) Reimbursements. Requests for reimbursement under nonconstruction grants will also be submitted on Standard Form 270. (For reimbursement requests under construction grants, see paragraph (e)(1) of this section.)

(3) The frequency for submitting payment requests is treated in § 33.41(b)(3).

(e) Outlay report and request for reimbursement for construction programs—(1) Grants that support construction activities paid by reimbursement method. (i) Requests for reimbursement under construction grants will be submitted on Standard Form 271, Outlay Report and Request for Reimbursement for Construction Programs. Federal agencies may, however, prescribe the Request for Advance or Reimbursement form, specified in § 33.41(d), instead of this form.

(ii) The frequency for submitting reimbursement requests is treated in § 33.41(b)(3).

(2) Grants that support construction activities paid by letter of credit, electronic funds transfer or Treasury check advance. (i) When a construction grant is paid by letter of credit, electronic funds transfer or Treasury check advances, the grantee will report its outlays to the Federal agency using Standard Form 271, Outlay Report and Request for Reimbursement for Construction Programs. The Federal agency will provide any necessary special instruction. However, frequency and due date shall be governed by § 33.41(b) (3) and (4).

(ii) When a construction grant is paid by Treasury check advances based on periodic requests from the grantee, the advances will be requested on the form specified in § 33.41(d).

(iii) The Federal agency may substitute the Financial Status Report specified in § 33.41(b) for the Outlay Report and Request for Reimbursement for Construction Programs.

(3) Accounting basis. The accounting basis for the Outlay Report and Request for Reimbursement for Construction Programs shall be governed by § 33.41(b)(2).

(a) Applicability. (1) This section applies to all financial and programmatic records, supporting documents, statistical records, and other records of grantees or subgrantees which are:

(i) Required to be maintained by the terms of this part, program regulations or the grant agreement, or

(ii) Otherwise reasonably considered as pertinent to program regulations or the grant agreement.

(2) This section does not apply to records maintained by contractors or subcontractors. For a requirement to place a provision concerning records in certain kinds of contracts, see § 33.36(i)(10).

(b) Length of retention period. (1) Except as otherwise provided, records must be retained for three years from the starting date specified in paragraph (c) of this section.

(2) If any litigation, claim, negotiation, audit or other action involving the records has been started before the expiration of the 3-year period, the records must be retained until completion of the action and resolution of all issues which arise from it, or until the end of the regular 3-year period, whichever is later.

(3) To avoid duplicate recordkeeping, awarding agencies may make special arrangements with grantees and subgrantees to retain any records which are continuously needed for joint use. The awarding agency will request transfer of records to its custody when it determines that the records possess long-term retention value. When the records are transferred to or maintained by the Federal agency, the 3-year retention requirement is not applicable to the grantee or subgrantee.

(c) Starting date of retention period—(1) General. When grant support is continued or renewed at annual or other intervals, the retention period for the records of each funding period starts on the day the grantee or subgrantee submits to the awarding agency its single or last expenditure report for that period. However, if grant support is continued or renewed quarterly, the retention period for each year's records starts on the day the grantee submits its expenditure report for the last quarter of the Federal fiscal year. In all other cases, the retention period starts on the day the grantee submits its final expenditure report. If an expenditure report has been waived, the retention period starts on the day the report would have been due.

(2) Real property and equipment records. The retention period for real property and equipment records starts from the date of the disposition or replacement or transfer at the direction of the awarding agency.

(3) Records for income transactions after grant or subgrant support. In some cases grantees must report income after the period of grant support. Where there is such a requirement, the retention period for the records pertaining to the earning of the income starts from the end of the grantee's fiscal year in which the income is earned.

(4) Indirect cost rate proposals, cost allocations plans, etc. This paragraph applies to the following types of documents, and their supporting records: indirect cost rate computations or proposals, cost allocation plans, and any similar accounting computations of the rate at which a particular group of costs is chargeable (such as computer usage chargeback rates or composite fringe benefit rates).

(i) If submitted for negotiation. If the proposal, plan, or other computation is required to be submitted to the Federal Government (or to the grantee) to form the basis for negotiation of the rate, then the 3-year retention period for its supporting records starts from the date of such submission.

(ii) If not submitted for negotiation. If the proposal, plan, or other computation is not required to be submitted to the Federal Government (or to the grantee) for negotiation purposes, then the 3-year retention period for the proposal plan, or computation and its supporting records starts from end of the fiscal year (or other accounting period) covered by the proposal, plan, or other computation.

(d) Substitution of microfilm. Copies made by microfilming, photocopying, or similar methods may be substituted for the original records.

(e) Access to records—(1) Records of grantees and subgrantees. The awarding agency and the Comptroller General of the United States, or any of their authorized representatives, shall have the right of access to any pertinent books, documents, papers, or other records of grantees and subgrantees which are pertinent to the grant, in order to make audits, examinations, excerpts, and transcripts.

(2) Expiration of right of access. The rights of access in this section must not be limited to the required retention period but shall last as long as the records are retained.

(f) Restrictions on public access. The Federal Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552) does not apply to records Unless required by Federal, State, or local law, grantees and subgrantees are not required to permit public access to their records.

(a) Remedies for noncompliance. If a grantee or subgrantee materially fails to comply with any term of an award, whether stated in a Federal statute or regulation, an assurance, in a State plan or application, a notice of award, or elsewhere, the awarding agency may take one or more of the following actions, as appropriate in the circumstances:

(1) Temporarily withhold cash payments pending correction of the deficiency by the grantee or subgrantee or more severe enforcement action by the awarding agency,

(2) Disallow (that is, deny both use of funds and matching credit for) all or part of the cost of the activity or action not in compliance,

(3) Wholly or partly suspend or terminate the current award for the grantee's or subgrantee's program,

(4) Withhold further awards for the program, or

(5) Take other remedies that may be legally available.

(b) Hearings, appeals. In taking an enforcement action, the awarding agency will provide the grantee or subgrantee an opportunity for such hearing, appeal, or other administrative proceeding to which the grantee or subgrantee is entitled under any statute or regulation applicable to the action involved.

(c) Effects of suspension and termination. Costs of grantee or subgrantee resulting from obligations incurred by the grantee or subgrantee during a suspension or after termination of an award are not allowable unless the awarding agency expressly authorizes them in the notice of suspension or termination or subsequently. Other grantee or subgrantee costs during suspension or after termination which are necessary and not reasonably avoidable are allowable if:

(1) The costs result from obligations which were properly incurred by the grantee or subgrantee before the effective date of suspension or termination, are not in anticipation of it, and, in the case of a termination, are noncancellable, and,

(2) The costs would be allowable if the award were not suspended or expired normally at the end of the funding period in which the termination takes effect.

(d) Relationship to debarment and suspension. The enforcement remedies identified in this section, including suspension and termination, do not preclude grantee or subgrantee from being subject to “Debarment and Suspension” under E.O. 12549 (see § 33.35).

Except as provided in § 33.43 awards may be terminated in whole or in part only as follows:

(a) By the awarding agency with the consent of the grantee or subgrantee in which case the two parties shall agree upon the termination conditions, including the effective date and in the case of partial termination, the portion to be terminated, or

(b) By the grantee or subgrantee upon written notification to the awarding agency, setting forth the reasons for such termination, the effective date, and in the case of partial termination, the portion to be terminated. However, if, in the case of a partial termination, the awarding agency determines that the remaining portion of the award will not accomplish the purposes for which the award was made, the awarding agency may terminate the award in its entirety under either § 33.43 or paragraph (a) of this section.

Sections 34.11 through 34.17 prescribe standards for financial management systems; methods for making payments; and rules for cost sharing and matching, program income, revisions to budgets and program plans, audits, allowable costs, and fee and profit.

(a) Recipients shall be allowed and encouraged to use existing financial management systems established for doing business in the commercial marketplace, to the extent that the systems comply with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) and the minimum standards in this section. As a minimum, a recipient's financial management system shall provide:

(1) Effective control of all funds. Control systems must be adequate to ensure that costs charged to Federal funds and those counted as the recipient's cost share or match are consistent with requirements for cost reasonableness, allowability, and allocability in the applicable cost principles (see § 34.17) and in the terms and conditions of the award.

(2) Accurate, current and complete records that document for each project funded wholly or in part with Federal funds the source and application of the Federal funds and the recipient's required cost share or match. These records shall:

(i) Contain information about receipts, authorizations, assets, expenditures, program income, and interest.

(ii) Be adequate to make comparisons of outlays with budgeted amounts for each award (as required for programmatic and financial reporting under § 34.41. Where appropriate, financial information should be related to performance and unit cost data. Note that unit cost data are generally not appropriate for awards that support research.

(3) To the extent that advance payments are authorized under § 34.12, procedures that minimize the time elapsing between the transfer of funds to the recipient from the Government and the recipient's disbursement of the funds for program purposes.

(4) The recipient shall have a system to support charges to Federal awards for salaries and wages, whether treated as direct or indirect costs. Where employees work on multiple activities or cost objectives, a distribution of their salaries and wages will be supported by personnel activity reports which must:

(i) Reflect an after the fact distribution of the actual activity of each employee.

(ii) Account for the total activity for which each employee is compensated.

(iii) Be prepared at least monthly, and coincide with one or more pay periods.

(b) Where the Federal Government guarantees or insures the repayment of money borrowed by the recipient, the DoD Component, at its discretion, may require adequate bonding and insurance if the bonding and insurance requirements of the recipient are not deemed adequate to protect the interest of the Federal Government.

(c) The DoD Component may require adequate fidelity bond coverage where the recipient lacks sufficient coverage to protect the Federal Government's interest.

(d) Where bonds are required in the situations described above, the bonds shall be obtained from companies holding certificates of authority as acceptable sureties, as prescribed in 31 CFR part 223, “Surety Companies Doing Business with the United States.”

(a) Methods available. Payment methods for awards with for-profit organizations are:

(1) Reimbursement. Under this method, the recipient requests reimbursement for costs incurred during a time period. In cases where the recipient submits each request for payment to the grants officer, the DoD payment office reimburses the recipient by electronic funds transfer or check after approval of the request by the grants officer designated to do so.

(2) Advance payments. Under this method, a DoD Component makes a payment to a recipient based upon projections of the recipient's cash needs. The payment generally is made upon the recipient's request, although predetermined payment schedules may be used when the timing of the recipient's needs to disburse funds can be predicted in advance with sufficient accuracy to ensure compliance with paragraph (b)(2)(iii) of this section.

(b) Selecting a method. (1) The preferred payment method is the reimbursement method, as described in paragraph (a)(1) of this section

(2) Advance payments, as described in paragraph (a)(2) of this section, may be used in exceptional circumstances, subject to the following conditions:

(i) The grants officer, in consultation with the program official, must judge that advance payments are necessary or will materially contribute to the probability of success of the project contemplated under the award (e.g., as startup funds for a project performed by a newly formed company). The rationale for the judgment shall be documented in the award file.

(ii) Cash advances shall be limited to the minimum amounts needed to carry out the program.

(iii) Recipients and the DoD Component shall maintain procedures to ensure that the timing of cash advances is as close as is administratively feasible to the recipients' disbursements of the funds for program purposes, including direct program or project costs and the proportionate share of any allowable indirect costs.

(iv) Recipients shall maintain advance payments of Federal funds in interest-bearing accounts, and remit annually the interest earned to the administrative grants officer responsible for post-award administration (the grants officer shall forward the payment to the responsible payment office, for return to the Department of Treasury's miscellaneous receipts account), unless one of the following applies:

(A) The recipient receives less than $120,000 in Federal awards per year.

(B) The best reasonably available interest bearing account would not be expected to earn interest in excess of $250 per year on Federal cash balances.

(C) The depository would require an average or minimum balance so high that it would not be feasible within the expected Federal and non-Federal cash resources.

(c) Frequency of payments. For either reimbursements or advance payments, recipients shall be authorized to submit requests for payment at least monthly.

(d) Forms for requesting payment. DoD Components may authorize recipients to use the SF-270, 1 “Request for Advance or Reimbursement;” the SF-271, 2 “Outlay Report and Request for Reimbursement for Construction Programs;” or prescribe other forms or formats as necessary.

(a) Acceptable contributions. All contributions, including cash contributions and third party in-kind contributions, shall be accepted as part of the recipient's cost sharing or matching when such contributions meet all of the following criteria:

(1) They are verifiable from the recipient's records.

(2) They are not included as contributions for any other federally-assisted project or program.

(3) They are necessary and reasonable for proper and efficient accomplishment of project or program objectives.

(4) They are allowable under § 34.17.

(5) They are not paid by the Federal Government under another award, except:

(i) Costs that are authorized by Federal statute to be used for cost sharing or matching; or

(ii) Independent research and development (IR&D) costs. In accordance with the for-profit cost principle in 48 CFR 31.205-18(e), use of IR&D as cost sharing is permitted, whether or not the Government decides at a later date to reimburse any of the IR&D as allowable indirect costs. In such cases, the IR&D must meet all of the criteria in paragraphs (a) (1) through (4) and (a) (6) through (8) of this section.

(6) They are provided for in the approved budget, when approval of the budget is required by the DoD Component.

(7) If they are real property or equipment, whether purchased with recipient's funds or donated by third parties, they must have the grants officer's prior approval if the contributions' value is to exceed depreciation or use charges during the project period (paragraphs (b)(1) and (b)(4)(ii) of this section discuss the limited circumstances under which a grants officer may approve higher values). If a DoD Component requires approval of a recipient's budget (see paragraph (a)(6) of this section), the grants officer's approval of the budget satisfies this prior approval requirement, for real property or equipment items listed in the budget.

(8) They conform to other provisions of this part, as applicable.

(b) Valuing and documenting contributions—(1) Valuing recipient's property or services of recipient's employees. Values shall be established in accordance with the applicable cost principles in § 34.17, which means that amounts chargeable to the project are determined on the basis of costs incurred. For real property or equipment used on the project, the cost principles authorize depreciation or use charges. The full value of the item may be applied when the item will be consumed in the performance of the award or fully depreciated by the end of the award. In cases where the full value of a donated capital asset is to be applied as cost sharing or matching, that full value shall be the lesser of the following:

(i) The certified value of the remaining life of the property recorded in the recipient's accounting records at the time of donation; or

(ii) The current fair market value. However, when there is sufficient justification, the grants officer may approve the use of the current fair market value of the donated property, even if it exceeds the certified value at the time of donation to the project. The grants officer may accept the use of any reasonable basis for determining the fair market value of the property.

(2) Valuing services of others' employees. When an employer other than the recipient furnishes the services of an employee, those services shall be valued at the employee's regular rate of pay plus an amount of fringe benefits and overhead (at an overhead rate appropriate for the location where the services are performed) provided these services are in the same skill for which the employee is normally paid.

(3) Valuing volunteer services. Volunteer services furnished by professional and technical personnel, consultants, and other skilled and unskilled labor may be counted as cost sharing or matching if the service is an integral and necessary part of an approved project or program. Rates for volunteer services shall be consistent with those paid for similar work in the recipient's organization. In those instances in which the required skills are not found in the recipient organization, rates shall be consistent with those paid for similar work in the labor market in which the recipient competes for the kind of services involved. In either case, paid fringe benefits that are reasonable, allowable, and allocable may be included in the valuation.

(4) Valuing property donated by third parties. (i) Donated supplies may include such items as office supplies or laboratory supplies. Value assessed to donated supplies included in the cost sharing or matching share shall be reasonable and shall not exceed the fair market value of the property at the time of the donation.

(ii) Normally only depreciation or use charges for equipment and buildings may be applied. However, the fair rental charges for land and the full value of equipment or other capital assets may be allowed, when they will be consumed in the performance of the award or fully depreciated by the end of the award, provided that the grants officer has approved the charges. When use charges are applied, values shall be determined in accordance with the usual accounting policies of the recipient, with the following qualifications:

(A) The value of donated space shall not exceed the fair rental value of comparable space as established by an independent appraisal of comparable space and facilities in a privately-owned building in the same locality.

(B) The value of loaned equipment shall not exceed its fair rental value.

(5) Documentation. The following requirements pertain to the recipient's supporting records for in-kind contributions from third parties:

(i) Volunteer services shall be documented and, to the extent feasible, supported by the same methods used by the recipient for its own employees.

(ii) The basis for determining the valuation for personal services and property shall be documented.

(a) DoD Components shall apply the standards in this section to the disposition of program income from projects financed in whole or in part with Federal funds.

(b) Recipients shall have no obligation to the Government, unless the terms and conditions of the award provide otherwise, for program income earned:

(1) From license fees and royalties for copyrighted material, patents, patent applications, trademarks, and inventions produced under an award. Note, however, that the Patent and Trademark Amendments (35 U.S.C. Chapter 18), as implemented in § 34.25, apply to inventions made under a research award.

(2) After the end of the project period. If a grants officer anticipates that an award is likely to generate program income after the end of the project period, the grants officer should indicate in the award document whether the recipient will have any obligation to the Federal Government with respect to such income.

(c) If authorized by the terms and conditions of the award, costs incident to the generation of program income may be deducted from gross income to determine program income, provided these costs have not been charged to the award.

(d) Other than any program income excluded pursuant to paragraphs (b) and (c) of this section, program income earned during the project period shall be retained by the recipient and used in one or more of the following ways, as specified in program regulations or the terms and conditions of the award:

(1) Added to funds committed to the project by the DoD Component and recipient and used to further eligible project or program objectives.

(2) Used to finance the non-Federal share of the project or program.

(3) Deducted from the total project or program allowable cost in determining the net allowable costs on which the Federal share of costs is based.

(e) If the terms and conditions of an award authorize the disposition of program income as described in paragraph (d)(1) or (d)(2) of this section, and stipulate a limit on the amounts that may be used in those ways, program income in excess of the stipulated limits shall be used in accordance with paragraph (d)(3) of this section.

(f) In the event that the terms and conditions of the award do not specify how program income is to be used, paragraph (d)(3) of this section shall apply automatically to all projects or programs except research. For awards that support research, paragraph (d)(1) of this section shall apply automatically unless the terms and conditions specify another alternative or the recipient is subject to special award conditions, as indicated in § 34.4.

(g) Proceeds from the sale of property that is acquired, rather than fabricated, under an award are not program income and shall be handled in accordance with the requirements of the Property Standards (see §§ 34.20 through 34.25).

(a) The budget plan is the financial expression of the project or program as approved during the award process. It may include either the sum of the Federal and non-Federal shares, or only the Federal share, depending upon DoD Component requirements. It shall be related to performance for program evaluation purposes whenever appropriate.

(b) Recipients are required to report deviations from budget and program plans, and request prior approvals for budget and program plan revisions, in accordance with this section.

(c) Recipients shall immediately request, in writing, prior approval from the cognizant grants officer when there is reason to believe that within the next seven calendar days a programmatic or budgetary revision will be necessary for certain reasons, as follows:

(1) The recipient always must obtain the grants officer's prior approval when a revision is necessary for either of the following two reasons (i.e., these two requirements for prior approval may never be waived):

(i) A change in the scope or the objective of the project or program (even if there is no associated budget revision requiring prior written approval).

(ii) A need for additional Federal funding.

(2) The recipient must obtain the grants officer's prior approval when a revision is necessary for any of the following six reasons, unless the requirement for prior approval is waived in the terms and conditions of the award (i.e., if the award document is silent, these prior approvals are required):

(i) A change in a key person specified in the application or award document.

(ii) The absence for more than three months, or a 25 percent reduction in time devoted to the project, by the approved project director or principal investigator.

(iii) The inclusion of any additional costs that require prior approval in accordance with applicable cost principles for Federal funds and recipients' cost share or match, in § 34.17 and § 34.13, respectively.

(iv) The inclusion of pre-award costs. All such costs are incurred at the recipient's risk (i.e., the DoD Component is under no obligation to reimburse such costs if for any reason the recipient does not receive an award, or if the award is less than anticipated and inadequate to cover such costs).

(v) A “no-cost” extension of the project period that does not require additional Federal funds and does not change the approved objectives or scope of the project.

(vi) Any subaward, transfer or contracting out of substantive program performance under an award, unless described in the application and funded in the approved awards. This provision does not apply to the purchase of supplies, material, or general support services, except that procurement of equipment or other capital items of property always is subject to the grants officer's prior approval under § 34.21(a), if it is to be purchased with Federal funds, or § 34.13(a)(7), if it is to be used as cost sharing or matching.

(3) The recipient also must obtain the grants officer's prior approval when a revision is necessary for either of the following reasons, if specifically required in the terms and conditions of the award document (i.e., if the award document is silent, these prior approvals are not required):

(i) The transfer of funds among direct cost categories, functions and activities for awards in which the Federal share of the project exceeds $100,000 and the cumulative amount of such transfers exceeds or is expected to exceed 10 percent of the total budget as last approved by the DoD Component. No DoD Component shall permit a transfer that would cause any Federal appropriation or part thereof to be used for purposes other than those consistent with the original intent of the appropriation.

(ii) For awards that provide support for both construction and nonconstruction work, any fund or budget transfers between the two types of work supported.

(d) Within 30 calendar days from the date of receipt of the recipient's request for budget revisions, the grants officer shall review the request and notify the recipient whether the budget revisions have been approved. If the revision is still under consideration at the end of 30 calendar days, the grants officer shall inform the recipient in writing of the date when the recipient may expect the decision.

(a) Any recipient that expends $500,000 or more in a year under Federal awards shall have an audit made for that year by an independent auditor, in accordance with paragraph (b) of this section. The audit generally should be made a part of the regularly scheduled, annual audit of the recipient's financial statements. However, it may be more economical in some cases to have the Federal awards separately audited, and a recipient may elect to do so, unless that option is precluded by award terms and conditions, or by Federal laws or regulations applicable to the program(s) under which the awards were made.

(b) The auditor shall determine and report on whether:

(1) The recipient has an internal control structure that provides reasonable assurance that it is managing Federal awards in compliance with Federal laws and regulations, and with the terms and conditions of the awards.

(2) Based on a sampling of Federal award expenditures, the recipient has complied with laws, regulations, and award terms that may have a direct and material effect on Federal awards.

(c) The recipient shall make the auditor's report available to DoD Components whose awards are affected.

(d) The requirement for an annual independent audit is intended to ascertain the adequacy of the recipient's internal financial management systems and to curtail the unnecessary duplication and overlap that usually results when Federal agencies request audits of individual awards on a routine basis. Therefore, a grants officer:

(1) Shall consider whether the independent audit satisfies his or her requirements, before requesting any additional audits; and

(2) When requesting an additional audit, shall:

(i) Limit the scope of such additional audit to areas not adequately addressed by the independent audit.

(ii) Coordinate the audit request with the Federal agency with the predominant fiscal interest in the recipient, as the agency responsible for the scheduling and distribution of audits. If DoD has the predominant fiscal interest in the recipient, the Defense Contract Management Command (DCMC) is responsible for monitoring audits, ensuring resolution of audit findings, and distributing audit reports. When an additional audit is requested and DoD has the predominant fiscal interest in the recipient, DCMC shall, to the extent practicable, ensure that the additional audit builds upon the independent audit or other audits performed in accordance with this section.

(e) There may be instances in which Federal auditors have recently performed audits, are performing audits, or are planning to perform audits, of a recipient. In these cases, the recipient and its Federal cognizant agency should seek to have the non-Federal, independent auditors work with the Federal auditors to develop a coordinated audit approach, to minimize duplication of audit work.

(f) Audit costs (including a reasonable allocation of the costs of the audit of the recipient's financial statement, based on the relative benefit to the Government and the recipient) are allowable costs of DoD awards.

Allowability of costs shall be determined in accordance with the cost principles applicable to the type of entity incurring the costs, as follows:

(a) For-profit organizations. Allowability of costs incurred by for-profit organizations that are recipients of prime awards from DoD Components, and those that are subrecipients under prime awards to other organizations, is to be determined in accordance with:

(1) The for-profit cost principles in 48 CFR parts 31 and 231 (in the Federal Acquisition Regulation, or FAR, and the Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement, or DFARS, respectively).

(2) The supplemental information on allowability of audit costs, in § 34.16(f).

(b) Other types of organizations. Allowability of costs incurred by other types of organizations that may be subrecipients under a prime award to a for-profit organization is determined as follows:

(1) Institutions of higher education. Allowability is determined in accordance with OMB Circular A-21, 3 “ Cost Principles for Educational Institutions.”

(2) Other nonprofit organizations. Allowability is determined in accordance with OMB Circular A-122, 4 “Cost Principles for Non-Profit Organizations.” Note that Attachment C of the Circular identifies selected nonprofit organizations for whom cost allowability is determined in accordance with the FAR cost principles for for-profit organizations.

(3) Hospitals. Allowability is determined in accordance with the provisions of 45 CFR part 74, Appendix E, “Principles for Determining Costs Applicable to Research and Development Under Grants and Contracts with Hospitals.”

(4) Governmental organizations. Allowability for State, local, or federally recognized Indian tribal governments is determined in accordance with OMB Circular A-87, 5 “Cost Principles for State and Local Governments.”

In accordance with 32 CFR 22.205(b), grants and cooperative agreements shall not:

(a) Provide for the payment of fee or profit to the recipient.

(b) Be used to carry out programs where fee or profit is necessary to achieving program objectives.

Sections 34.21 through 34.25 set forth uniform standards for management, use, and disposition of property. DoD Components shall encourage recipients to use existing property-management systems, to the extent that the systems meet these minimum requirements.

(a) Prior approval for acquisition with Federal funds. Recipients may purchase real property or equipment in whole or in part with Federal funds under an award only with the prior approval of the grants officer.

(b) Title. Title to such real property or equipment shall vest in the recipient upon acquisition. Unless a statute specifically authorizes a DoD Component to vest title in the recipient without further obligation to the Government, and the DoD Component elects to do so, the title shall be a conditional title. Title shall vest in the recipient subject to the conditions that the recipient:

(1) Use the real property or equipment for the authorized purposes of the project until funding for the project ceases, or until the property is no longer needed for the purposes of the project.

(2) Not encumber the property without approval of the grants officer.

(3) Use and dispose of the property in accordance with paragraphs (d) and (e) of this section.

(c) Federal interest in real property or equipment offered as cost-share. A recipient may offer the full value of real property or equipment that is purchased with recipient's funds or that is donated by a third party to meet a portion of any required cost sharing or matching, subject to the prior approval requirement in § 34.13(a)(7). If a recipient does so, the Government has a financial interest in the property, a share of the property value attributable to the Federal participation in the project. The property therefore shall be considered as if it had been acquired in part with Federal funds, and shall be subject to the provisions of paragraphs (b)(1), (b)(2) and (b)(3) of this section, and to the provisions of § 34.23.

(d) Use. If real property or equipment is acquired in whole or in part with Federal funds under an award, and the award provides that title vests conditionally in the recipient, the real property or equipment is subject to the following:

(1) During the time that the real property or equipment is used on the project or program for which it was acquired, the recipient shall make it available for use on other projects or programs, if such other use will not interfere with the work on the project or program for which the real property or equipment was originally acquired. Use of the real property or equipment on other projects will be in the following order of priority:

(i) Activities sponsored by DoD Components' grants, cooperative agreements, or other assistance awards;

(ii) Activities sponsored by other Federal agencies' grants, cooperative agreements, or other assistance awards;

(iii) Activities under Federal procurement contracts, or activities not sponsored by any Federal agency. If so used, use charges shall be assessed to those activities. For real property or equipment, the use charges shall be at rates equivalent to those for which comparable real property or equipment may be leased. The use charges shall be treated as program income.

(2) After Federal funding for the project ceases, or when the real property or equipment is no longer needed for the purposes of the project, the recipient may use the real property or equipment for other projects, insofar as:

(i) There are Federally sponsored projects for which the real property or equipment may be used. If the only use for the real property or equipment is for projects that have no Federal sponsorship, the recipient shall proceed with disposition of the real property or equipment, in accordance with paragraph (e) of this section.

(ii) The recipient obtains written approval from the grants officer to do so. The grants officer shall ensure that there is a formal change of accountability for the real property or equipment to a currently funded, Federal award.

(iii) The recipient's use of the real property or equipment for other projects is in the same order of priority as described in paragraph (d)(1) of this section.

(e) Disposition. (1) When an item of real property or equipment is no longer needed for Federally sponsored projects, the recipient shall proceed as follows:

(i) If the property that is no longer needed is equipment (rather than real property), the recipient may wish to replace it with an item that is needed currently for the project. In that case, the recipient may use the original equipment as trade-in or sell it and use the proceeds to offset the costs of the replacement equipment, subject to the approval of the responsible agency (i.e., the DoD Component or the Federal agency to which the DoD Component delegated responsibility for administering the equipment).

(ii) The recipient may elect to retain title, without further obligation to the Federal Government, by compensating the Federal Government for that percentage of the current fair market value of the real property or equipment that is attributable to the Federal participation in the project.

(iii) If the recipient does not elect to retain title to real property or equipment (see paragraph (e)(1)(ii) of this section), or request approval to use equipment as trade-in or offset for replacement equipment (see paragraph (e)(1)(i) of this section), the recipient shall request disposition instructions from the responsible agency.

(2) If a recipient requests disposition instructions, in accordance with paragraph (e)(1)(iii) of this section, the responsible grants officer shall:

(i) For equipment (but not real property), consult with the Federal program manager and judge whether the age and nature of the equipment warrant a screening procedure, to determine whether the equipment is useful to a DoD Component or other Federal agency. If a screening procedure is warranted, the responsible agency shall determine whether the equipment can be used to meet a DoD Component's requirement. If no DoD requirement is found, the responsible agency shall report the availability of the equipment to the General Services Administration, to determine whether a requirement for the equipment exists in other Federal agencies.

(ii) For either real property or equipment, issue instructions to the recipient for disposition of the property no later than 120 calendar days after the recipient's request. The grants officer's options for disposition are to direct the recipient to:

(A) Transfer title to the real property or equipment to the Federal Government or to an eligible third party provided that, in such cases, the recipient shall be entitled to compensation for its attributable percentage of the current fair market value of the real property or equipment, plus any reasonable shipping or interim storage costs incurred. If title is transferred to the Federal Government, it shall be subject thereafter to provisions for Federally owned property in § 34.22.

(B) Sell the real property or equipment and pay the Federal Government for that percentage of the current fair market value of the property that is attributable to the Federal participation in the project (after deducting actual and reasonable selling and fix-up expenses, if any, from the sale proceeds). When the recipient is authorized or required to sell the real property or equipment, proper sales procedures shall be established that provide for competition to the extent practicable and result in the highest possible return.

(3) If the responsible agency fails to issue disposition instructions within 120 calendar days of the recipient's request, as described in paragraph (e)(2)(ii) of this section, the recipient shall dispose of the real property or equipment through the option described in paragraph (e)(2)(ii)(B) of this section.

(a) Annual inventory. Recipients shall submit annually an inventory listing of all Federally owned property in their custody (property furnished by the Federal Government, rather than acquired by the recipient with Federal funds under the award), to the DoD Component or other Federal agency responsible for administering the property under the award.

(b) Use on other activities. (1) Use of federally owned property on other activities is permissible, if authorized by the DoD Component responsible for administering the award to which the property currently is charged.

(2) Use on other activities will be in the following order of priority:

(i) Activities sponsored by DoD Components' grants, cooperative agreements, or other assistance awards;

(ii) Activities sponsored by other Federal agencies' grants, cooperative agreements, or other assistance awards;

(iii) Activities under Federal procurement contracts, or activities not sponsored by any Federal agency. If so used, use charges shall be assessed to those activities. For real property or equipment, the use charges shall be at rates equivalent to those for which comparable real property or equipment may be leased. The use charges shall be treated as program income.

(c) Disposition of property. Upon completion of the award, the recipient shall report the property to the responsible agency. The agency may:

(1) Use the property to meet another Federal Government need (e.g, by transferring accountability for the property to another Federal award to the same recipient, or by directing the recipient to transfer the property to a Federal agency that needs the property, or to another recipient with a currently funded award).

(2) Declare the property to be excess property and either:

(i) Report the property to the General Services Administration, in accordance with the Federal Property and Administrative Services Act of 1949 (40 U.S.C. 483(b)(2)), as implemented by General Services Administration regulations at 41 CFR 101-47.202; or

(ii) Dispose of the property by alternative methods, if there is statutory authority to do so (e.g., DoD Components are authorized by 15 U.S.C. 3710(i), the Federal Technology Transfer Act, to donate research equipment to educational and nonprofit organizations for the conduct of technical and scientific education and research activities. Such donations shall be in accordance with the DoD implementation of E.O. 12999 (3 CFR, 1996 Comp., p. 180), “Educational Technology: Ensuring Opportunity for All Children in the Next Century,” as applicable.) Appropriate instructions shall be issued to the recipient by the responsible agency.

The recipient's property management system shall include the following, for property that is Federally owned, and for equipment that is acquired in whole or in part with Federal funds, or that is used as matching share:

(a) Property records shall be maintained, to include the following information:

(1) A description of the property.

(2) Manufacturer's serial number, model number, Federal stock number, national stock number, or any other identification number.

(3) Source of the property, including the award number.

(4) Whether title vests in the recipient or the Federal Government.

(5) Acquisition date (or date received, if the property was furnished by the Federal Government) and cost.

(6) Information from which one can calculate the percentage of Federal participation in the cost of the property (not applicable to property furnished by the Federal Government).

(7) The location and condition of the property and the date the information was reported.

(8) Ultimate disposition data, including date of disposal and sales price or the method used to determine current fair market value where a recipient compensates the Federal Government for its share.

(b) Federally owned equipment shall be marked, to indicate Federal ownership.

(c) A physical inventory shall be taken and the results reconciled with the property records at least once every two years. Any differences between quantities determined by the physical inspection and those shown in the accounting records shall be investigated to determine the causes of the difference. The recipient shall, in connection with the inventory, verify the existence, current utilization, and continued need for the property.

(d) A control system shall be in effect to insure adequate safeguards to prevent loss, damage, or theft of the property. Any loss, damage, or theft of property shall be investigated and fully documented; if the property was owned by the Federal Government, the recipient shall promptly notify the Federal agency responsible for administering the property.

(e) Adequate maintenance procedures shall be implemented to keep the property in good condition.

(a) Patents. Grants and cooperative agreements with:

(1) Small business concerns shall comply with 35 U.S.C. Chapter 18, as implemented by 37 CFR part 401, which applies to inventions made under grants and cooperative agreements with small business concerns for research and development. 37 CFR 401.14 provides a standard clause that is required in such grants and cooperative agreements in most cases, 37 CFR 401.3 specifies when the clause shall be included, and 37 CFR 401.5 specifies how the clause may be modified and tailored.

(2) For-profit organizations other than small business concerns shall comply with 35 U.S.C. 210(c) and Executive Order 12591 (3 CFR, 1987 Comp., p. 220) (which codifies a Presidential Memorandum on Government Patent Policy, dated February 18, 1983).

(i) The Executive order states that, as a matter of policy, grants and cooperative agreements should grant to all for-profit organizations, regardless of size, title to patents made in whole or in part with Federal funds, in exchange for royalty-free use by or on behalf of the Government (i.e., it extends the applicability of 35 U.S.C. Chapter 18, to the extent permitted by law, to for-profit organizations other than small business concerns).

(ii) 35 U.S.C. 210(c) states that 35 U.S.C. Chapter 18 is not intended to limit agencies' authority to agree to the disposition of rights in inventions in accordance with the Presidential memorandum codified by the Executive order. It also states that such grants and cooperative agreements shall provide for Government license rights required by 35 U.S.C. 202(c)(4) and march-in rights required by 35 U.S.C. 203.

(b) Copyright, data and software rights. Requirements concerning data and software rights are as follows:

(1) The recipient may copyright any work that is subject to copyright and was developed under an award. DoD Components reserve a royalty-free, nonexclusive and irrevocable right to reproduce, publish, or otherwise use the work for Federal purposes, and to authorize others to do so.

(2) Unless waived by the DoD Component making the award, the Federal Government has the right to:

(i) Obtain, reproduce, publish or otherwise use for Federal Government purposes the data first produced under an award.

(ii) Authorize others to receive, reproduce, publish, or otherwise use such data for Federal purposes.

Section 34.31 sets forth requirements necessary to ensure:

(a) Compliance of recipients' procurements that use Federal funds with applicable Federal statutes and executive orders.

(b) Proper stewardship of Federal funds used in recipients' procurements.

The following requirements pertain to recipients' procurements funded in whole or in part with Federal funds or with recipients' cost-share or match:

(a) Reasonable cost. Recipients procurement procedures shall make maximum practicable use of competition, or shall use other means that ensure reasonable cost for procured goods and services.

(b) Pre-award review of certain procurements. Prior to awarding a procurement contract under an award, a recipient may be required to provide the grants officer administering the award with pre-award documents (e.g., requests for proposals, invitations for bids, or independent cost estimates) related to the procurement. Recipients will only be required to provide such documents for the grants officer's pre-award review in exceptional cases where the grants officer judges that there is a compelling need to do so. In such cases, the grants officer must include a provision in the award that states the requirement.

(c) Contract provisions. (1) Contracts in excess of the simplified acquisition threshold shall contain contractual provisions or conditions that allow for administrative, contractual, or legal remedies in instances in which a contractor violates or breaches the contract terms, and provide for such remedial actions as may be appropriate.

(2) All contracts in excess of the simplified acquisition threshold shall contain suitable provisions for termination for default by the recipient or for termination due to circumstances beyond the control of the contractor.

(3) All negotiated contracts in excess of the simplified acquisition threshold shall include a provision permitting access of the Department of Defense, the Comptroller General of the United States, or any of their duly authorized representatives, to any books, documents, papers, and records of the contractor that are directly pertinent to a specific program, for the purpose of making audits, examinations, excerpts, and transcriptions.

(4) All contracts, including those for amounts less than the simplified acquisition threshold, awarded by recipients and their contractors shall contain the procurement provisions of Appendix A to this part, as applicable.

Sections 34.41 and 34.42 prescribe requirements for monitoring and reporting financial and program performance and for records retention.

Grants officers may use the provisions of 32 CFR 32.51 and 32.52 for awards to for-profit organizations, or may include equivalent technical and financial reporting requirements that ensure reasonable oversight of the expenditure of appropriated funds. As a minimum, equivalent requirements must include:

(a) Periodic reports (at least annually, and no more frequently than quarterly) addressing both program status and business status, as follows:

(1) The program portions of the reports must address progress toward achieving program performance goals, including current issues, problems, or developments.

(2) The business portions of the reports shall provide summarized details on the status of resources (federal funds and non-federal cost sharing or matching), including an accounting of expenditures for the period covered by the report. The report should compare the resource status with any payment and expenditure schedules or plans provided in the original award; explain any major deviations from those schedules; and discuss actions that will be taken to address the deviations.

(3) When grants officers previously authorized advance payments, pursuant to § 34.12(a)(2), they should consult with the program official and consider whether program progress reported in the periodic report, in relation to reported expenditures, is sufficient to justify continued authorization of advance payments.

(b) Unless inappropriate, a final performance report that addresses all major accomplishments under the award.

(a) This section sets forth requirements for records retention and access to records for awards to recipients.

(b) Financial records, supporting documents, statistical records, and all other records pertinent to an award shall be retained for a period of three years from the date of submission of the final expenditure report. The only exceptions are the following:

(1) If any litigation, claim, or audit is started before the expiration of the 3-year period, the records shall be retained until all litigation, claims or audit findings involving the records have been resolved and final action taken.

(2) Records for real property and equipment acquired with Federal funds shall be retained for 3 years after final disposition.

(3) When records are transferred to or maintained by the DoD Component that made the award, the 3-year retention requirement is not applicable to the recipient.

(4) Indirect cost rate proposals, cost allocations plans, and related records, for which retention requirements are specified in § 34.42(g).

(c) Copies of original records may be substituted for the original records if authorized by the grants officer.

(d) The grants officer shall request that recipients transfer certain records to DoD Component custody when he or she determines that the records possess long term retention value. However, in order to avoid duplicate recordkeeping, a grants officer may make arrangements for recipients to retain any records that are continuously needed for joint use.

(e) DoD Components, the Inspector General, Comptroller General of the United States, or any of their duly authorized representatives, have the right of timely and unrestricted access to any books, documents, papers, or other records of recipients that are pertinent to the awards, in order to make audits, examinations, excerpts, transcripts and copies of such documents. This right also includes timely and reasonable access to a recipient's personnel for the purpose of interview and discussion related to such documents. The rights of access in this paragraph are not limited to the required retention period, but shall last as long as records are retained.

(f) Unless required by statute, no DoD Component shall place restrictions on recipients that limit public access to the records of recipients that are pertinent to an award, except when the DoD Component can demonstrate that such records shall be kept confidential and would have been exempted from disclosure pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (5 U.S.C. 552) if the records had belonged to the DoD Component making the award.

(g) Indirect cost proposals, cost allocation plans, and other cost accounting documents (such as documents related to computer usage chargeback rates), along with their supporting records, shall be retained for a 3-year period, as follows:

(1) If a recipient is required to submit an indirect-cost proposal, cost allocation plan, or other computation to the cognizant Federal agency, for purposes of negotiating an indirect cost rate or other rates, the 3-year retention period starts on the date of the submission. This retention requirement also applies to subrecipients submitting similar documents for negotiation to the recipient.

(2) If the recipient or the subrecipient is not required to submit the documents or supporting records for negotiating an indirect cost rate or other rates, the 3-year retention period for the documents and records starts at the end of the fiscal year (or other accounting period) covered by the proposal, plan, or other computation.

(h) If the information described in this section is maintained on a computer, recipients shall retain the computer data on a reliable medium for the time periods prescribed. Recipients may transfer computer data in machine readable form from one reliable computer medium to another. Recipients' computer data retention and transfer procedures shall maintain the integrity, reliability, and security of the original computer data. Recipients shall also maintain an audit trail describing the data transfer. For the record retention time periods prescribed in this section, recipients shall not destroy, discard, delete, or write over such computer data.

Sections 34.51 through 34.53 set forth uniform procedures for suspension, termination, enforcement, and disputes.

(a) Awards may be terminated in whole or in part only in accordance with one of the following:

(1) By the grants officer, if a recipient materially fails to comply with the terms and conditions of an award.

(2) By the grants officer with the consent of the recipient, in which case the two parties shall agree upon the termination conditions, including the effective date and, in the case of partial termination, the portion to be terminated.

(3) By the recipient upon sending to the grants officer written notification setting forth the reasons for such termination, the effective date, and, in the case of partial termination, the portion to be terminated. The recipient must provide such notice at least 30 calendar days prior to the effective date of the termination. However, if the grants officer determines in the case of partial termination that the reduced or modified portion of the award will not accomplish the purposes for which the award was made, he or she may terminate the award in its entirety.

(b) If costs are allowed under an award, the responsibilities of the recipient referred to in § 34.61(b), including those for property management as applicable, shall be considered in the termination of the award, and provision shall be made for continuing responsibilities of the recipient after termination, as appropriate.

(a) Remedies for noncompliance. If a recipient materially fails to comply with the terms and conditions of an award, whether stated in a Federal statute, regulation, assurance, application, or notice of award, the grants officer may, in addition to imposing any of the special conditions outlined in § 34.4, take one or more of the following actions, as appropriate in the circumstances:

(1) Temporarily withhold cash payments pending correction of the deficiency by the recipient or more severe enforcement action by the grants officer and DoD Component.

(2) Disallow (that is, deny both use of funds and any applicable matching credit for) all or part of the cost of the activity or action not in compliance.

(3) Wholly or partly suspend or terminate the current award. In the case of termination, the recipient will be reimbursed for allowable costs incurred prior to termination, with the possible exception of those for activities and actions described in paragraph (a)(2) of this section.

(4) Withhold further awards for the project or program.

(5) Take other remedies that may be legally available.

(b) Hearings and appeals. In taking an enforcement action, the grants officer and DoD Component shall provide the recipient an opportunity for hearing, appeal, or other administrative proceeding to which the recipient is entitled under any statute or regulation applicable to the action involved (see § 34.53 and 32 CFR 22.815).

(c) Effects of suspension and termination. Costs of a recipient resulting from obligations incurred by the recipient during a suspension or after termination of an award are not allowable unless the grants officer expressly authorizes them in the notice of suspension or termination or subsequently. Other recipient costs during suspension or after termination which are necessary and not reasonably avoidable are allowable if the costs:

(1) Result from obligations which were properly incurred by the recipient before the effective date of suspension or termination, are not in anticipation of it, and in the case of a termination, are noncancellable; and

(2) Would be allowable if the award were not suspended or expired normally at the end of the funding period in which the termination takes effect.

(d) Relationship to debarment and suspension. The enforcement remedies identified in this section, including suspension and termination, do not preclude a recipient from being subject to debarment and suspension under 2 CFR part 1125.

Recipients have the right to appeal certain decisions by grants officers. In resolving such issues, DoD policy is to use Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) techniques, to the maximum practicable extent. See 32 CFR 22.815 for standards for DoD Components' dispute resolution and formal, administrative appeal procedures.

Prior to award of a TIA, your responsibilities for determining that the recipient is qualified are the same as those of a grants officer who is awarding a grant or cooperative agreement. Those responsibilities are described in subpart D of 32 CFR part 22. When the recipient is a consortium that is not formally incorporated, you have the additional responsibility described in § 37.515.

(a) When the prospective recipient of a TIA is a consortium that is not formally incorporated, your determination that the recipient meets the standard at 32 CFR 22.415(a) requires that you, in consultation with legal counsel, review the management plan in the consortium's collaboration agreement. The purpose of your review is to ensure that the management plan is sound and that it adequately addresses the elements necessary for an effective working relationship among the consortium members. An effective working relationship is essential to increase the research project's chances of success.

(b) The collaboration agreement, commonly referred to as the articles of collaboration, is the document that sets out the rights and responsibilities of each consortium member. It binds the individual consortium members together, whereas the TIA binds the Government and the consortium as a group (or the Government and a consortium member on behalf of the consortium, as explained in § 37.1015). The document should discuss, among other things, the consortium's:

(1) Management structure.

(2) Method of making payments to consortium members.

(3) Means of ensuring and overseeing members' efforts on the project.

(4) Provisions for members' cost sharing contributions.

(5) Provisions for ownership and rights in intellectual property developed previously or under the agreement.

In cooperation with the program official, you must assess the reasonableness of the total estimated budget to perform the research that will be supported by the agreement. Additional guidance follows for:

(a) Labor. Much of the budget likely will involve direct labor and associated indirect costs, which may be represented together as a “loaded” labor rate. The program official is an essential advisor on reasonableness of the overall level of effort and its composition by labor category. You also may rely on your experience with other awards as the basis for determining reasonableness. If you have any unresolved questions, two of the ways that you might find helpful in establishing reasonableness are to:

(1) Consult the administrative agreements officers or auditors identified in § 37.505.

(2) Compare loaded labor rates of for-profit firms that do not have expenditure-based Federal procurement contracts or assistance awards with a standard or average for the particular industry. Note that the program official may have knowledge about customary levels of direct labor charges in the particular industry that is involved. You may be able to compare associated indirect charges with Government-approved indirect cost rates that exist for many nonprofit and for-profit organizations that have Federal procurement contracts or assistance awards (note the requirement in § 37.630 for a for-profit participant to use Federally approved provisional indirect cost rates, if it has them).

(b) Real property and equipment. In almost all cases, the project costs may include only depreciation or use charges for real property and equipment of for-profit participants, in accordance with § 37.685. Remember that the budget for an expenditure-based TIA may not include depreciation of a participant's property as a direct cost of the project if that participant's practice is to charge the depreciation of that type of property as an indirect cost, as many organizations do.

You must:

(a) Determine that the recipient's cost sharing contributions meet the criteria for cost sharing and determine values for them, in accordance with §§ 37.530 through 37.555. In doing so, you must:

(1) Ensure that there are affirmative statements from any third parties identified as sources of cash contributions.

(2) Include in the award file an evaluation that documents how you determined the values of the recipient's contributions to the funding of the project.

(b) Judge that the recipient's cost sharing contribution, as a percentage of the total budget, is reasonable. To the maximum extent practicable, the recipient must provide at least half of the costs of the project, in accordance with § 37.215.

You may accept any cash or in-kind contributions that meet all of the following criteria:

(a) In your judgment, they represent meaningful cost sharing that demonstrates the recipient's commitment to the success of the research project. Cash contributions clearly demonstrate commitment and they are strongly preferred over in-kind contributions.

(b) They are necessary and reasonable for accomplishment of the research project's objectives.

(c) They are costs that may be charged to the project under § 37.625 and § 37.635, as applicable to the participant making the contribution.

(d) They are verifiable from the recipient's records.

(e) They are not included as cost sharing contributions for any other Federal award.

(f) They are not paid by the Federal Government under another award, except:

(1) Costs that are authorized by Federal statute to be used for cost sharing; or

(2) Independent research and development (IR&D) costs, as described at 32 CFR 34.13(a)(5)(ii), that meet all of the criteria in paragraphs (a) through (e) of this section. IR&D is acceptable as cost sharing, even though it may be reimbursed by the Government through other awards. It is standard business practice for all for-profit firms, including commercial firms, to recover their research and development (R&D) costs (which for Federal procurement contracts is recovered as IR&D) through prices charged to their customers. Thus, the cost principles at 48 CFR part 31 allow a for-profit firm that has expenditure-based, Federal procurement contracts to recover through those procurement contracts the allocable portion of its R&D costs associated with a technology investment agreement.

You rarely should accept values for cost sharing contributions of real property or equipment that are in excess of depreciation or reasonable use charges, as discussed in § 37.685 for for-profit participants. You may accept the full value of a donated capital asset if the real property or equipment is to be dedicated to the project and you expect that it will have a fair market value that is less than $5,000 at the project's end. In those cases, you should value the donation at the lesser of:

(a) The value of the property as shown in the recipient's accounting records (i.e., purchase price less accumulated depreciation); or

(b) The current fair market value. You may accept the use of any reasonable basis for determining the fair market value of the property. If there is a justification to do so, you may accept the current fair market value even if it exceeds the value in the recipient's records.

You should limit the value of any contribution of a fully depreciated asset to a reasonable use charge. In determining what is reasonable, you must consider:

(a) The original cost of the asset;

(b) Its estimated remaining useful life at the time of your negotiations;

(c) The effect of any increased maintenance charges or decreased performance due to age; and

(d) The amount of depreciation that the participant previously charged to Federal awards.

No, you may not count any participant's costs of prior research as a cost sharing contribution. Only the additional resources that the recipient will provide to carry out the current project (which may include pre-award costs for the current project, as described in § 37.830) are to be counted.

(a) In most instances, you should not count costs of patents and other intellectual property (e.g., copyrighted material, including software) as cost sharing, because:

(1) It is difficult to assign values to these intangible contributions;

(2) Their value usually is a manifestation of prior research costs, which are not allowed as cost share under § 37.545; and

(3) Contributions of intellectual property rights generally do not represent the same cost of lost opportunity to a recipient as contributions of cash or tangible assets. The purpose of cost share is to ensure that the recipient incurs real risk that gives it a vested interest in the project's success.

(b) You may include costs associated with intellectual property if the costs are based on sound estimates of market value of the contribution. For example, a for-profit firm may offer the use of commercially available software for which there is an established license fee for use of the product. The costs of the development of the software would not be a reasonable basis for valuing its use.

For types of participant contributions other than those addressed in §§ 37.535 through 37.550, the general rule is that you are to value each contribution consistently with the cost principles or standards in § 37.625 and § 37.635 that apply to the participant making the contribution. When valuing services and property donated by parties other than the participants, you may use as guidance the provisions of 32 CFR 34.13(b)(2) through (5).

(a) To use a fixed-support TIA, rather than an expenditure-based TIA, you must have confidence in your estimate of the expenditures required to achieve well-defined outcomes. Therefore, you must work carefully with program officials to select outcomes that, when the recipient achieves them, are reliable indicators of the amount of effort the recipient expended. However, your estimate of the required expenditures need not be a precise dollar amount, as illustrated by the example in paragraph (b) of this section, if:

(1) The recipient is contributing a substantial share of the costs of achieving the outcomes, which must meet the criteria in § 37.305(a); and

(2) You are confident that the costs of achieving the outcomes will be at least a minimum amount that you can specify and the recipient is willing to accept the possibility that its cost sharing percentage ultimately will be higher if the costs exceed that minimum amount.

(b) To illustrate the approach, consider a project for which you are confident that the recipient will have to expend at least $800,000 to achieve the specified outcomes. You must determine, in conjunction with program officials, the minimum level of recipient cost sharing that you want to negotiate, based on the circumstances, to demonstrate the recipient's commitment to the success of the project. For purposes of this illustration, let that minimum recipient cost sharing be 40% of the total project costs. In that case, the Federal share should be no more than 60% and you could set a fixed level of Federal support at $480,000 (60% of $800,000). With that fixed level of Federal support, the recipient would be responsible for the balance of the costs needed to complete the project.

(c) Note, however, that the level of recipient cost sharing you negotiate is to be based solely on the level needed to demonstrate the recipient's commitment. You may not use a shortage of Federal Government funding for the program as a reason to try to persuade a recipient to accept a fixed-support TIA, rather than an expenditure-based instrument, or to accept responsibility for a greater share of the total project costs than it otherwise is willing to offer. If you lack sufficient funding to provide an appropriate Federal Government share for the entire project, you instead should rescope the effort covered by the agreement to match the available funding.

Yes, for a research project that is to be carried out by a number of participants, you may award a TIA that provides for some participants to perform under fixed-support arrangements and others to perform under expenditure-based arrangements. This approach may be useful, for example, if a commercial firm that is a participant will not accept an agreement with all of the post-award requirements of an expenditure-based award. Before using a fixed-support arrangement for that firm's portion of the project, you must judge that it meets the criteria in § 37.305.

(a) To avoid causing needless changes in participants' financial management systems, your expenditure-based TIAs will make for-profit participants that currently perform under other expenditure-based Federal procurement contracts or assistance awards subject to the same standards for financial management systems that apply to those other awards. Therefore, if a for-profit participant has expenditure-based DoD assistance awards other than TIAs, your TIAs are to apply the standards in 32 CFR 34.11. You may grant an exception and allow a for-profit participant that has other expenditure-based Federal Government awards to use an alternative set of standards that meets the minimum criteria in paragraph (b) of this section, if there is a compelling programmatic or business reason to do so. For each case in which you grant an exception, you must document the reason in the award file.

(b) For an expenditure-based TIA, you are to allow and encourage each for-profit participant that does not currently perform under expenditure-based Federal procurement contracts or assistance awards (other than TIAs) to use its existing financial management system as long as the system, as a minimum:

(1) Complies with Generally Accepted Accounting Principles.

(2) Effectively controls all project funds, including Federal funds and any required cost share. The system must have complete, accurate, and current records that document the sources of funds and the purposes for which they are disbursed. It also must have procedures for ensuring that project funds are used only for purposes permitted by the agreement (see § 37.625).

(3) Includes, if advance payments are authorized under § 37.805, procedures to minimize the time elapsing between the payment of funds by the Government and the firm's disbursement of the funds for program purposes.

So as not to force system changes for any State, local government, institution of higher education, or other nonprofit organization, your expenditure-based TIA's requirements for the financial management system of any nonprofit participant are the same as those that apply to the participant's other Federal assistance awards. Specifically, the requirements are those in:

(a) 32 CFR 33.20 for State and local governments; and

(b) 32 CFR 32.21(b) for other nonprofit organizations, with the exception of Government-owned, contractor-operated (GOCO) facilities and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) that are excepted from the definition of “recipient” in 32 CFR part 32. Although it should occur infrequently, if a nonprofit GOCO or FFRDC is a participant, you must specify appropriate standards that conform as much as practicable with requirements in that participant's other Federal awards.

(a) So as not to require any firm to needlessly change its cost-accounting system, your expenditure-based TIAs are to apply the Government cost principles in 48 CFR parts 31 and 231 to for-profit participants that currently perform under expenditure-based Federal procurement contracts or assistance awards (other than TIAs) and therefore have existing systems for identifying allowable costs under those principles. If there are programmatic or business reasons to do otherwise, you may grant an exception from this requirement and use alternative standards as long as the alternative satisfies the conditions described in paragraph (b) of this section; if you do so, you must document the reasons in your award file.

(b) For other for-profit participants, you may establish alternative standards in the agreement as long as that alternative provides, as a minimum, that Federal funds and funds counted as recipients' cost sharing will be used only for costs that:

(1) A reasonable and prudent person would incur in carrying out the research project contemplated by the agreement. Generally, elements of cost that appropriately are charged are those identified with research and development activities under the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (see Statement of Financial Accounting Standards Number 2, “Accounting for Research and Development Costs,” October 1974 1 ). Moreover, costs must be allocated to DoD and other projects in accordance with the relative benefits the projects receive. Costs charged to DoD projects must be given consistent treatment with costs allocated to the participants' other research and development activities (e.g., activities supported by the participants themselves or by non-Federal sponsors).

(2) Are consistent with the purposes stated in the governing Congressional authorizations and appropriations. You are responsible for ensuring that provisions in the award document address any requirements that result from authorizations and appropriations.

In accordance with the general policy in § 37.605, you must require a for-profit participant that has Federally approved indirect cost rates for its Federal procurement contracts to use those rates to accumulate and report costs under an expenditure-based TIA. This includes both provisional and final rates that are approved up until the time that the TIA is closed out. You may grant an exception from this requirement if there are programmatic or business reasons to do otherwise (e.g., the participant offers you a lower rate). If you grant an exception, the participant must accumulate and report the costs using an accounting system and practices that it uses for other customers (e.g., its commercial customers). Also, you must document the reason for the exception in your award file.

So as not to force financial system changes for any nonprofit participant, your expenditure-based TIA will provide that costs to be charged to the research project by any nonprofit participant must be determined to be allowable in accordance with:

(a) OMB Circular A-87, 2 if the participant is a State or local governmental organization.

(b) OMB Circular A-21, 3 if the participant is an institution of higher education.

(c) 45 CFR part 74, appendix E, if the participant is a hospital.

(d) OMB Circular A-122, if the participant is any other type of nonprofit organization (the cost principles in 48 CFR parts 31 and 231 are to be used by any nonprofit organization that is identified in Circular A-122 as being subject to those cost principles).

If your TIA is an expenditure-based award, you must include in it an audit provision that addresses, for each for-profit participant:

(a) Whether the for-profit participant must have periodic audits, in addition to any award-specific audits, as described in § 37.645. Note that the DCAA or the Office of the Inspector General, DoD (OIG, DoD), can provide advice on the types and scope of audits that may be needed in various circumstances.

(b) Whether the DCAA or an independent public accountant (IPA) will perform required audits, as discussed in § 37.650.

(c) How frequently any periodic audits are to be performed, addressed in § 37.655.

(d) Other matters described in § 37.660, such as audit coverage, allowability of audit costs, auditing standards, and remedies for noncompliance.

You need to consider requirements for both periodic audits and award-specific audits (as defined in § 37.1325 and § 37.1235, respectively). The way that your expenditure-based TIA addresses the two types of audits will vary, depending upon the type of for-profit participant.

(a) For for-profit participants that are audited by the DCAA or other Federal auditors, as described in §§ 37.650(b) and 37.655, you need not add specific requirements for periodic audits because the Federal audits should be sufficient to address whatever may be needed. Your inclusion in the TIA of the standard access-to-records provision for those for-profit participants, as discussed in § 37.915(a), gives the necessary access in the event that you or administrative agreements officers later need to request audits to address award-specific issues that arise.

(b) For each other for-profit participant, you:

(1) Should require that the participant have an independent auditor (i.e., the DCAA or an independent public accountant) conduct periodic audits of its systems if it expends $500,000 or more per year in TIAs and other Federal assistance awards. A prime reason for including this requirement is that the Federal Government, for an expenditure-based award, necessarily relies on amounts reported by the participant's systems when it sets payment amounts or adjusts performance outcomes. The periodic audit provides some assurance that the reported amounts are reliable.

(2) Must ensure that the award provides an independent auditor the access needed for award-specific audits, to be performed at the request of the cognizant administrative agreements officer if issues arise that require audit support. However, consistent with the government-wide policies on single audits that apply to nonprofit participants (see § 37.665), you should rely on periodic audits to the maximum extent possible to resolve any award-specific issues.

The auditor that you will identify in the expenditure-based TIA to perform periodic and award-specific audits of a for-profit participant depends on the circumstances, as follows:

(a) You may provide that an IPA will be the auditor for a for-profit participant that does not meet the criteria in paragraph (b) of this section, but only if the participant will not agree to give the DCAA access to the necessary books and records for audit purposes. Note that the allocable portion of the costs of the IPA's audit may be reimbursable under the TIA, as described in § 37.660(b). The IPA should be the one that the participant uses to perform other audits (e.g., of its financial statement), to minimize added burdens and costs. You must document in the award file the participant's unwillingness to give the DCAA access. The DCAA is to be the auditor if the participant grants the necessary access.

(b) Except as provided in paragraph (c) of this section, you must identify the DCAA as the auditor for any for-profit participant that is subject to DCAA audits because it is currently performing under a Federal award that is subject to the:

(1) Cost principles in 48 CFR part 31 of the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) and 48 CFR part 231 of the Defense FAR Supplement; or

(2) Cost Accounting Standards in 48 CFR chapter 99.

(c) If there are programmatic or business reasons that justify the use of an auditor other than the DCAA for a for-profit participant that meets the criteria in paragraph (b) of this section, you may provide that an IPA will be the auditor for that participant if you obtain prior approval from the Office of the Inspector General, DoD. You must submit requests for prior approval to the Assistant Inspector General (Auditing), 400 Army-Navy Drive, Arlington, VA 22202. Your request must include the name and address of the business unit(s) for which IPAs will be used. It also must explain why you judge that the participant will not give the DCAA the necessary access to records for audit purposes (e.g., you may submit a statement to that effect from the participant). The OIG, DoD, will respond within five working days of receiving the request for prior approval, either by notifying you of the decision (approval or disapproval) or giving you a date by which they will notify you of the decision.

If your expenditure-based TIA provides for periodic audits of a for-profit participant by an IPA, you must specify the frequency for those audits. You should consider having an audit performed during the first year of the award, when the participant has its IPA do its next financial statement audit, unless the participant already had a systems audit due to other Federal awards within the past two years. The frequency thereafter may vary depending upon the dollars the participant is expending annually under the award, but it is not unreasonable to require an updated audit every two to three years to reverify that the participant's systems are reliable (the audit then would cover the two or three-year period between audits). The DCAA is a source of advice on audit frequencies if your TIA provides for audits by IPAs.

If your expenditure-based TIA provides for audits of a for-profit participant by an IPA, you also must specify:

(a) What periodic audits are to cover. It is important that you specify audit coverage that is only as broad as needed to provide reasonable assurance of the participant's compliance with award terms that have a direct and material effect on the research project. Appendix C to this part provides guidance to for-profit participants and their IPAs that you may use for this purpose. The DCAA and the OIG, DoD, also can provide advice to help you set appropriate limits on audit objectives and scope.

(b) Who will pay for periodic and award-specific audits. The allocable portion of the costs of any audits by IPAs may be reimbursable under the TIA. The costs may be direct charges or allocated indirect costs, consistent with the participant's accounting system and practices.

(c) The auditing standards that the IPA will use. Unless you receive prior approval from the OIG, DoD, to do otherwise, you must provide that the IPA will perform the audits in accordance with the Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards. 4

(d) The available remedies for noncompliance. The agreement must provide that the participant may not charge costs to the award for any audit that the agreements officer, with the advice of the OIG, DoD, determines was not performed in accordance with the Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards or other terms of the agreement. It also must provide that the Government has the right to require the participant to have the IPA take corrective action and, if corrective action is not taken, that the agreements officer has recourse to any of the remedies for noncompliance identified in 32 CFR 34.52(a).

(e) The remedy if it later is found that the participant, at the time it entered into the TIA, was performing on a procurement contract or other Federal award subject to the Cost Accounting Standards at 48 CFR part 30 and the cost principles at 48 CFR part 31. Unless the OIG, DoD, approves an exception (see § 37.650(c)), the TIA's terms must provide that the DCAA will perform the audits for the agreement if it later is found that the participant, at the time the TIA was awarded, was performing under awards described in § 37.650(b) that gave the DCAA audit access to the participant's books and records.

(f) Where the IPA is to send audit reports. The agreement must provide that the IPA is to submit audit reports to the administrative agreements officer and the OIG, DoD. It also must require that the IPA report instances of fraud directly to the OIG, DoD.

(g) The retention period for the IPA's working papers. You must specify that the IPA is to retain working papers for a period of at least three years after the final payment, unless the working papers relate to an audit whose findings are not fully resolved within that period or to an unresolved claim or dispute (in which case, the IPA must keep the working papers until the matter is resolved and final action taken).

(h) Who will have access to the IPA's working papers. The agreement must provide for Government access to working papers.

Yes, expenditure-based TIAs are assistance instruments subject to the Single Audit Act (31 U.S.C. 7501-7507), so nonprofit participants are subject to their usual requirements under that Act and OMB Circular A-133. 5 Specifically, the requirements are those in:

(a) 32 CFR 33.26 for State and local governments; and

(b) 32 CFR 32.26 for other nonprofit organizations. Note that those requirements also are appropriate for Government-owned, contractor-operated (GOCO) facilities and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDCs) that are excluded from the definition of “recipient” in 32 CFR part 32, because nonprofit GOCOs and FFRDCs are subject to the Single Audit Act.

(a) Yes, in accordance with § 37.610, your expenditure-based TIA must require participants to flow down the same audit requirements to a subrecipient that would apply if the subrecipient were a participant.

(b) For example, a for-profit participant that is audited by the DCAA:

(1) Would flow down to a university subrecipient the Single Audit Act requirements that apply to a university participant.

(2) Could enter into a subaward allowing a for-profit participant, under the circumstances described in § 37.650(a), to use an IPA to do its audits.

(c) This policy applies to subawards for substantive performance of portions of the research project supported by the TIA, and not to participants' purchases of goods or services needed to carry out the research.

Yes, you must include that information with the data you provide for your DoD Component's annual submission to the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC), as provided in § 37.1030(c).

Yes, your expenditure-based TIA must require participants to report to you when they enter into any subaward allowing a for-profit subawardee to use an IPA, as described in § 37.670(b)(2). You must provide that information about the new subaward under the TIA for your DoD Component's annual submission to the DTIC, even though the TIA may have been reported in a prior year and does not itself have to be reported again.

(a) With the two exceptions described in paragraph (b) of this section, you must require a for-profit firm to purchase real property or equipment with its own funds that are separate from the research project. You should allow the firm to charge to an expenditure-based TIA only depreciation or use charges for real property or equipment (and your cost estimate for a fixed-support TIA only would include those costs). Note that the firm must charge depreciation consistently with its usual accounting practice. Many firms treat depreciation as an indirect cost. Any firm that usually charges depreciation indirectly for a particular type of property must not charge depreciation for that property as a direct cost to the TIA.

(b) In two situations, you may grant an exception and allow a for-profit firm to use project funds, which includes both the Federal Government and recipient shares, to purchase real property or equipment (i.e., to charge to the project the full acquisition cost of the property). The two circumstances, which should be infrequent for equipment and extremely rare for real property, are those in which you either:

(1) Judge that the real property or equipment will be dedicated to the project and have a current fair market value that is less than $5,000 by the time the project ends; or

(2) Give prior approval for the firm to include the full acquisition cost of the real property or equipment as part of the cost of the project (see § 37.535).

(c) If you grant an exception in either of the circumstances described in paragraphs (b)(1) and (2) of this section, you must make the real property or equipment subject to the property management standards in 32 CFR 34.21(b) through (d). As provided in those standards, the title to the real property or equipment will vest conditionally in the for-profit firm upon acquisition. Your TIA, whether it is a fixed-support or expenditure-based award, must specify that any item of equipment that has a fair market value of $5,000 or more at the conclusion of the project also will be subject to the disposition process in 32 CFR 34.21(e), whereby the Federal Government will recover its interest in the property at that time.

For nonprofit participants, your TIA's requirements for vesting of title, use, management, and disposition of real property or equipment acquired under the award are the same as those that apply to the participant's other Federal assistance awards. Specifically, the requirements are those in:

(a) 32 CFR 33.31 and 33.32, for participants that are States and local governmental organizations.

(b) 32 CFR 32.32 and 32.33, for other nonprofit participants, with the exception of nonprofit GOCOs and FFRDCs that are exempted from the definition of “recipient” in 32 CFR part 32. Although it should occur infrequently, if a nonprofit GOCO or FFRDC is a participant, you must specify appropriate standards that conform as much as practicable with requirements in that participant's other Federal awards. Note also that:

(1) If the TIA is a cooperative agreement (see appendix B to this part), 31 U.S.C. 6306 provides authority to vest title to tangible personal property in a nonprofit institution of higher education or in a nonprofit organization whose primary purpose is conducting scientific research, without further obligation to the Federal Government; and

(2) Your TIA therefore must specify any conditions on the vesting of title to real property or equipment acquired by any such nonprofit participant, or the title will vest in the participant without further obligation to the Federal Government, as specified in 32 CFR 32.33(b)(3).

If you provide Federally owned property to any participant for the performance of research under a TIA, you must require that participant to account for, use, and dispose of the property in accordance with:

(a) 32 CFR 34.22, if the participant is a for-profit firm.

(b) 32 CFR 33.32(f), if the participant is a State or local governmental organization. Note that 32 CFR 33.32(f) requires you to provide additional information to the participant on the procedures for managing the property.

(c) 32 CFR 32.33(a) and 32.34(f), if the participant is a nonprofit organization other than a GOCO or FFRDC (requirements for nonprofit GOCOs and FFRDCs should conform with the property standards that apply to their Federal procurement contracts).

Your expenditure-based TIA's provisions should permit participants to use their existing procedures to account for and manage supplies. A fixed-support TIA should not include requirements to account for or manage supplies.

(a) If your TIA is an expenditure-based award, it should require for-profit participants that currently perform under DoD assistance instruments subject to the purchasing standards in 32 CFR 34.31 to use the same requirements for TIAs, unless there are programmatic or business reasons to do otherwise (in which case you must document the reasons in the award file).

(b) You should allow other for-profit participants under expenditure-based TIAs to use their existing purchasing systems, as long as they flow down the applicable requirements in Federal statutes, Executive orders or Governmentwide regulations (see appendix E to this part for a list of those requirements).

(c) If your TIA is a fixed-support award, you need only require for-profit participants to flow down the requirements listed in appendix F to this part.

(a) So as not to force system changes for any nonprofit participant, your expenditure-based TIA will provide that each nonprofit participant's purchasing system comply with:

(1) 32 CFR 33.36, if the participant is a State or local governmental organization.

(2) 32 CFR 32.40 through 32.49 if the participant is a nonprofit organization other than a GOCO or FFRDC that is excepted from the definition of “recipient” in 32 CFR part 32. Although it should occur infrequently, if a nonprofit GOCO or FFRDC is a participant, you must specify appropriate standards that conform as much as practicable with requirements in that participant's other Federal awards.

(b) If your TIA is a fixed-support award, you need only require nonprofit participants to flow down the requirements listed in appendix E to this part.

Your TIA may provide for:

(a) Reimbursement, as described in 32 CFR 34.12(a)(1), if it is an expenditure-based award.

(b) Advance payments, as described in 32 CFR 34.12(a)(2), subject to the conditions in 32 CFR 34.12(b)(2)(i) through (iii).

(c) Payments based on payable milestones. These are payments made according to a schedule that is based on predetermined measures of technical progress or other payable milestones. This approach relies upon the fact that, as research progresses throughout the term of the agreement, observable activity will be taking place. The recipient is paid upon the accomplishment of the predetermined measure of progress. Fixed-support TIAs must use this payment method and each measure of progress appropriately would be one of the well-defined outcomes that you identify in the agreement (this does not preclude use of an initial advance payment, if there is no alternative to meeting immediate cash needs). There are cash management considerations when this payment method is used as a means of financing for an expenditure-based TIA (see § 37.575 and § 37.1105).

The procedure and frequency for payment requests depend upon the payment method, as follows:

(a) For either reimbursements or advance payments, your TIA must allow recipients to submit requests for payment at least monthly. You may authorize the recipients to use the forms or formats described in 32 CFR 34.12(d).

(b) If the payments are based on payable milestones, the recipient will submit a report or other evidence of accomplishment to the program official at the completion of each predetermined activity. The agreement administrator may approve payment to the recipient after receiving validation from the program manager that the milestone was successfully reached.

Your TIA must provide that the administrative agreements officer may withhold payments in the circumstances described in 32 CFR 34.12(g), but not otherwise.

If your expenditure-based TIA provides for either advance payments or payable milestones, the agreement must require the recipient to:

(a) Maintain in an interest-bearing account any advance payments or milestone payment amounts received in advance of needs to disburse the funds for program purposes unless:

(1) The recipient receives less than $120,000 in Federal grants, cooperative agreements, and TIAs per year;

(2) The best reasonably available interest-bearing account would not be expected to earn interest in excess of $1,000 per year on the advance or milestone payments; or

(3) The depository would require an average or minimum balance so high that it would not be feasible within the expected Federal and non-Federal cash resources for the project.

(b) Remit annually the interest earned to the administrative agreements officer.

If it is an expenditure-based award, your agreement must require the recipient to obtain the agreement administrator's prior approval if there is to be a change in plans that results in a need for additional Federal funding (this is unnecessary for a fixed-support TIA because the recipient is responsible for additional costs of achieving the outcomes). Other than that, the program official's substantial involvement in the project should ensure that the Government has advance notice of changes in plans.

Pre-award costs, as long as they are otherwise allowable costs of the project, may be charged to an expenditure-based TIA only with the specific approval of the agreements officer. All pre-award costs are incurred at the recipient's risk (i.e., no DoD Component is obligated to reimburse the costs if for any reason the recipient does not receive an award or if the award is less than anticipated and inadequate to cover the costs).

Your TIA should apply the standards of 32 CFR 34.14 for program income that may be generated. Note the need to specify whether the recipient is to have any obligation to the Federal Government with respect to program income generated after the end of the project period (the period, as established in the award document, during which Federal support is provided). Doing so is especially important if the TIA includes a provision for the recipient to return any amounts to the Federal Government (see § 37.580).

(a) You should confer with program officials and legal counsel to develop an overall strategy for intellectual property that takes into account inventions and data that may result from the project and future needs the Government may have for rights in them. The strategy should take into account any intellectual property the Government is furnishing and any pre-existing proprietary information that the recipient is furnishing, as well as data and inventions that may be generated under the award (recognizing that new data and inventions may be less valuable without pre-existing information). All pre-existing intellectual property, both the Government's and the recipient's, should be marked to give notice of its status.

(b) Because TIAs entail substantial cost sharing by recipients, you must use discretion in negotiating Government rights to data and patentable inventions resulting from research under the agreements. The considerations in §§ 37.845 through 37.875 are intended to serve as guidelines, within which you necessarily have considerable latitude to negotiate provisions appropriate to a wide variety of circumstances that may arise. Your goal should be a good balance between DoD interests in:

(1) Gaining access to the best technologies for defense needs, including technologies available in the commercial marketplace, and promoting commercialization of technologies resulting from the research. Either of these interests may be impeded if you negotiate excessive rights for the Government. One objective of TIAs is to help incorporate defense requirements into the development of what ultimately will be commercially available technologies, an objective that is best served by reducing barriers to commercial firms' participation in the research. In that way, the commercial technology and industrial base can be a source of readily available, reliable, and affordable components, subsystems, computer software, and other technological products and manufacturing processes for military systems.

(2) Providing adequate protection of the Government's investment, which may be weakened if the Government's rights are inadequate. You should consider whether the Government may require access to data or inventions for Governmental purposes, such as a need to develop defense-unique products or processes that the commercial marketplace likely will not address.

(a) You should seek to obtain what you, with the advice of legal counsel, judge is needed to ensure future Government use of technology that emerges from the research, as long as doing so is consistent with the balance between DoD interests described in § 37.840(b). You should consider data in which you wish to obtain license rights and data that you may wish to be delivered; since TIAs are assistance instruments rather than acquisition instruments, however, it is not expected that data would be delivered in most cases. What generally is needed is an irrevocable, world-wide license for the Government to use, modify, reproduce, release, or disclose for Governmental purposes the data that are generated under TIAs (including any data, such as computer software, in which a recipient may obtain a copyright). A Governmental purpose is any activity in which the United States Government participates, but a license for Governmental purposes does not include the right to use, or have or permit others to use, modify, reproduce, release, or disclose data for commercial purposes.

(b) You may negotiate licenses of different scope than described in paragraph (a) of this section when necessary to accomplish program objectives or to protect the Government's interests. Consult with legal counsel before negotiating a license of different scope.

(c) In negotiating data rights, you should consider the rights in background data that are necessary to fully utilize technology that is expected to result from the TIA, in the event the recipient does not commercialize the technology or chooses to protect any invention as a trade secret rather than by a patent. If a recipient intends to protect any invention as a trade secret, you should consult with your intellectual property counsel before deciding what information related to the invention the award should require the recipient to report.

To protect the recipient's interests in data, your TIA should require the recipient to mark any particular data that it wishes to protect from disclosure with a legend identifying the data as licensed data subject to use, release, or disclosure restrictions.

Prior to releasing or disclosing data marked with a restrictive legend (as described in § 37.850) to third parties, you should require those parties to agree in writing that they will:

(a) Use the data only for governmental purposes; and

(b) Not release or disclose the data without the permission of the licensor (i.e., the recipient).

(a) You should negotiate rights in inventions that represent a good balance between the Government's interests (see § 37.840(b)) and the recipient's interests. As explained in appendix B to this part:

(1) You have the flexibility to negotiate patent rights provisions that vary from what the Bayh-Dole statute (Chapter 18 of Title 35, U.S.C.) requires in many situations. You have that flexibility because TIAs include not only cooperative agreements, but also assistance transactions other than grants or cooperative agreements.

(2) Your TIA becomes an assistance instrument other than a grant or cooperative agreement if its patent rights provision varies from what Bayh-Dole requires in your situation. However, you need not consider that difference in the type of transaction until the agreement is finalized, and it should not affect the provision you negotiate.

(b) As long as it is consistent with the balance between DoD interests described in § 37.840(b) and the recipient's interests, you should seek to obtain for the Government, when an invention is conceived or first actually reduced to practice under a TIA, a nonexclusive, nontransferrable, irrevocable, paid-up license to practice the invention, or to have it practiced, for or on behalf of the United States throughout the world. The license is for Governmental purposes, and does not include the right to practice the invention for commercial purposes.

(c) To provide for the license described in paragraph (b) of this section, your TIA generally would include the patent-rights clause that 37 CFR 401.14 specifies to implement the Bayh-Dole statute's requirements. Note that:

(1) The clause is designed specifically for grants, contracts, and cooperative agreements awarded to small businesses and nonprofit organizations, the types of funding instruments and recipients to which the entire Bayh-Dole statute applies. As explained in appendix B to this part, only two Bayh-Dole requirements (in 35 U.S.C. sections 202(c)(4) and 203) apply to cooperative agreements with other performers, by virtue of an amendment to Bayh-Dole at 35 U.S.C. 210(c).

(2) You may use the same clause, suitably modified, in cooperative agreements with performers other than small businesses and nonprofit organizations. Doing so is consistent with a 1983 Presidential memorandum that calls for giving other performers rights in inventions from Federally supported research that are at least as great as the rights that Bayh-Dole gives to small businesses and nonprofit organizations (see appendix B to this part for details). That Presidential memorandum is incorporated by reference in Executive Order 12591 (52 FR 13414, 3 CFR, 1987 Comp., p. 220), as amended by Executive Order 12618 (52 FR 48661, 3 CFR, 1987 Comp., p. 262).

(3) The clause provides for flow-down of Bayh-Dole patent-rights provisions to subawards with small businesses and nonprofit organizations.

(4) There are provisions in 37 CFR part 401 stating when you must include the clause (37 CFR 401.3) and, in cases when it is required, how you may modify and tailor it (37 CFR 401.5).

(d) You may negotiate Government rights of a different scope than the standard patent-rights provision described in paragraph (c) of this section when necessary to accomplish program objectives and foster the Government's interests. If you do so:

(1) With the help of the program manager and legal counsel, you must decide what best represents a reasonable arrangement considering the circumstances, including past investments, contributions under the current TIA, and potential commercial markets. Taking past investments as an example, you should consider whether the Government or the recipient has contributed more substantially to the prior research and development that provides the foundation for the planned effort. If the predominant past contributor to the particular technology has been:

(i) The Government, then the TIA's patent-rights provision should be at or close to the standard Bayh-Dole provision.

(ii) The recipient, then a less restrictive patent provision may be appropriate, to allow the recipient to benefit more directly from its investments.

(2) You should keep in mind that obtaining a nonexclusive license at the time of award, as described in paragraph (b) of this section, is valuable if the Government later requires access to inventions to enable development of defense-unique products or processes that the commercial marketplace is not addressing. If you do not obtain a license at the time of award, you should consider alternative approaches to ensure access, such as negotiating a priced option for obtaining nonexclusive licenses in the future to inventions that are conceived or reduced to practice under the TIA.

(3) You also may consider whether you want to provide additional flexibility by giving the recipient more time than the standard patent-rights provision does to:

(i) Notify the Government of an invention, from the time the inventor discloses it within the for-profit firm.

(ii) Inform the Government whether it intends to take title to the invention.

(iii) Commercialize the invention, before the Government license rights in the invention become effective.

Your TIA's patent rights provision should include the Bayh-Dole march-in rights clause at paragraph (j)(1) of 37 CFR 401.14, or an equivalent clause, concerning actions that the Government may take to obtain the right to use subject inventions, if the recipient fails to take effective steps to achieve practical application of the subject inventions within a reasonable time. The march-in provision may be modified to best meet the needs of the program. However, only infrequently should the march-in provision be entirely removed (e.g., you may wish to do so if a recipient is providing most of the funding for a research project, with the Government providing a much smaller share).

To protect the recipient's interest in inventions, your TIA should require the recipient to mark documents disclosing inventions it desires to protect by obtaining a patent. The recipient should mark the documents with a legend identifying them as intellectual property subject to public release or public disclosure restrictions, as provided in 35 U.S.C. 205.

(a) Consistent with the objective of enhancing the national security by increasing DoD reliance on the U.S. commercial technology and industrial bases, you must include a provision in the TIA that addresses foreign access to technology developed under the TIA.

(b) The provision must provide, as a minimum, that any transfer of the:

(1) Technology must be consistent with the U.S. export laws, regulations and policies (e.g., the International Traffic in Arms Regulation at chapter I, subchapter M, title 22 of the CFR (22 CFR parts 120 through 130), the DoD Industrial Security Regulation in DoD 5220.22-R, 6 and the Department of Commerce Export Regulation at chapter VII, subchapter C, title 15 of the CFR (15 CFR parts 730 through 774), as applicable.

(2) Exclusive right to use or sell the technology in the United States must, unless the Government grants a waiver, require that products embodying the technology or produced through the use of the technology will be manufactured substantially in the United States. The provision may further provide that:

(i) In individual cases, the Government may waive the requirement of substantial manufacture in the United States upon a showing by the recipient that reasonable but unsuccessful efforts have been made to transfer the technology under similar terms to those likely to manufacture substantially in the United States or that under the circumstances domestic manufacture is not commercially feasible.

(ii) In those cases, the DoD Component may require a refund to the Government of some or all the funds paid under the TIA for the development of the transferred technology.

(c) You may, but are not required to, seek to negotiate a domestic manufacture condition for transfers of nonexclusive rights to use or sell the technology in the United States, to parallel the one described for exclusive licenses in paragraph (b)(2) of this section, if you judge that nonexclusive licenses for foreign manufacture could effectively preclude the establishment of domestic sources of the technology for defense purposes.

Your TIA must include either:

(a) The requirements in 32 CFR 32.51 and 32.52 for status reports on programmatic performance and, if it is an expenditure-based award, on financial performance; or

(b) Alternative requirements that, as a minimum, include periodic reports addressing program and, if it is an expenditure-based award, business status. You must require submission of the reports at least annually, and you may require submission as frequently as quarterly (this does not preclude a recipient from electing to submit more frequently than quarterly the financial information that is required to process payment requests if the award is an expenditure-based TIA that uses reimbursement or advance payments under § 37.810(a)). The requirements for the content of the reports are as follows:

(1) The program portions of the reports must address progress toward achieving program performance goals, including current issues, problems, or developments.

(2) The business portions of the reports, applicable only to expenditure-based awards, must provide summarized details on the status of resources (federal funds and non-federal cost sharing), including an accounting of expenditures for the period covered by the report. The report should compare the resource status with any payment and expenditure schedules or plans provided in the original award; explain any major deviations from those schedules; and discuss actions that will be taken to address the deviations. You may require a recipient to separately identify in these reports the expenditures for each participant in a consortium and for each programmatic milestone or task, if you, after consulting with the program official, judge that those additional details are needed for good stewardship.

In addition to reports on progress to date, your TIA may include a provision requiring the recipient to annually prepare updated technical plans for the future conduct of the research effort. If your TIA does include a requirement for annual program plans, you also must require the recipient to submit the annual program plans to the agreements officer responsible for administering the TIA.

You need not require a final performance report that addresses all major accomplishments under the TIA. If you do not do so, however, there must be an alternative that satisfies the requirement in DoD Instruction 3200.14 7 to document all DoD Science and Technology efforts and disseminate the results through the Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC). An example of an alternative would be periodic reports throughout the performance of the research that collectively cover the entire project.

(a) Whether your TIA requires a final performance report or uses an alternative means under § 37.890, 8 you may include an award term or condition or otherwise instruct the recipient to submit the documentation, electronically if available, either:

(1) Directly to the DTIC; or

(2) To the office that is administering the award (for subsequent transmission to the DTIC).

(b) If you specify that the recipient is to submit the report directly to the DTIC, you also:

(1) Must instruct the recipient to include a fully completed Standard Form 298, “Report Documentation Page,” with each document, so that the DTIC can recognize the document as being related to the particular award and properly record its receipt; and

(2) Should advise the recipient to provide a copy of the completed Standard Form 298 to the agreements officer responsible for administering the TIA.

You may tell a participant that:

(a) We may exempt from disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) a trade secret or commercial and financial information that a participant provides after the award, if the information is privileged or confidential information. The DoD Component that receives the FOIA request will review the information in accordance with DoD procedures at 32 CFR 286.23(h) (and any DoD Component supplementary procedures) to determine whether it is privileged or confidential information under the FOIA exemption at 5 U.S.C. 552(b)(4), as implemented by the DoD at 32 CFR 286.12(d).

(b) If the participant also provides information in the course of a competition prior to award, there is a statutory exemption for five years from FOIA disclosure requirements for certain types of information submitted at that time (see § 37.420).

If a final report is required, your TIA should make receipt of the report a condition for final payment. If the payments are based on payable milestones, the submission and acceptance of the final report by the Government representative will be incorporated as an event that is a prerequisite for one of the payable milestones.

Your TIA must require participants to keep records related to the TIA (for which the agreement provides Government access under § 37.915) for a period of three years after submission of the final financial status report for an expenditure-based TIA or final programmatic status report for a fixed-support TIA, with the following exceptions:

(a) The participant must keep records longer than three years after submission of the final financial status report if the records relate to an audit, claim, or dispute that begins but does not reach its conclusion within the 3-year period. In that case, the participant must keep the records until the matter is resolved and final action taken.

(b) Records for any real property or equipment acquired with project funds under the TIA must be kept for three years after final disposition.

(a) If a for-profit participant currently grants access to its records to the DCAA or other Federal Government auditors, your TIA must include for that participant the standard access-to-records requirements at 32 CFR 34.42(e). If the agreement is a fixed-support TIA, the language in 32 CFR 34.42(e) may be modified to provide access to records concerning the recipient's technical performance, without requiring access to the recipient's financial or other records. Note that any need to address access to technical records in this way is in addition to, not in lieu of, the need to address rights in data (see § 37.845).

(b) For other for-profit participants that do not currently give the Federal Government direct access to their records and are not willing to grant full access to records pertinent to the award, there is no set requirement to include a provision in your TIA for Government access to records. If the audit provision of an expenditure-based TIA gives an IPA access to the recipient's financial records for audit purposes, the Federal Government must have access to the IPA's reports and working papers and you need not include a provision requiring direct Government access to the recipient's financial records. For both fixed-support and expenditure-based TIAs, you may wish to negotiate Government access to recipient records concerning technical performance. Should you negotiate a provision giving access only to specific Government officials (e.g., the agreements officer), rather than a provision giving Government access generally, it is important to let participants know that the OIG, DoD, has a statutory right of access to records and other materials to which other DoD Component officials have access.

Your TIA must include for any nonprofit participant the standard access-to-records requirement at:

(a) 32 CFR 33.42(e), for a participant that is a State or local governmental organization.

(b) 32 CFR 32.53(e), for a participant that is a nonprofit organization. The same requirement applies to any nonprofit GOCO or FFRDC, even though nonprofit GOCOs and FFRDCs are exempted from the definition of “recipient” in 32 CFR part 32.

Your TIA must apply the standards of 32 CFR 34.51 for termination, 32 CFR 34.52 for enforcement, and your organization's procedures implementing 32 CFR 22.815 for disputes and appeals.

You are responsible for ensuring that the award document is complete and accurate. Your objective is to create a document that:

(a) Addresses all issues;

(b) States requirements directly. It is not helpful to readers to incorporate statutes or rules by reference, without sufficient explanation of the requirements. You generally should not incorporate clauses from the Federal Acquisition Regulation (48 CFR parts 1-53) or Defense Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (48 CFR parts 201-253), because those provisions are designed for procurement contracts that are used to acquire goods and services, rather than for TIAs or other assistance instruments.

(c) Is written in clear and concise language, to minimize potential ambiguity.

You necessarily will design and negotiate a TIA individually to meet the specific requirements of the particular project, so the complete list of substantive issues that you will address in the award document may vary. Every award document must address:

(a) Project scope. The scope is an overall vision statement for the project, including a discussion of the project's purpose, objectives, and detailed military and commercial goals. It is a critical provision because it provides a context for resolving issues that may arise during post-award administration. In a fixed-support TIA, you also must clearly specify the well-defined outcomes that reliably indicate the amount of effort expended and serve as the basis for the level of the fixed support (see §§ 37.305 and 37.560(a)).

(b) Project management. You should describe the nature of the relationship between the Federal Government and the recipient; the relationship among the participants, if the recipient is an unincorporated consortium; and the overall technical and administrative management of the project. TIAs are used to carry out collaborative relationships between the Federal Government and the recipient. Consequently, there must be substantial involvement of the DoD program official (see § 37.220) and usually the administrative agreements officer. The program official provides technical insight, which differs from the usual technical oversight of a project. The management provision also should discuss how you and the recipient will make any modifications to the TIA.

(c) Termination, enforcement, and disputes. Your TIA must provide for termination, enforcement remedies, and disputes and appeals procedures, in accordance with § 37.925.

(d) Funding. You must:

(1) Show the total amount of the agreement and the total period of performance.

(2) If the TIA is an expenditure-based award, state the Government's and recipient's agreed-upon cost shares. The award document should identify values for any in-kind contributions, determined in accordance with §§ 37.530 through 37.555, to preclude later disagreements about them.

(3) Specify the amount of Federal funds obligated and the performance period for those obligated funds.

(4) State, if the agreement is to be incrementally funded, that the Government's obligation for additional funding is contingent upon the availability of funds and that no legal obligation on the part of the Government exists until additional funds are made available and the agreement is amended. You also must include a prior approval requirement for changes in plans requiring additional Government funding, in accordance with § 37.825.

(e) Payment. You must choose the payment method and tell the recipient how, when, and where to submit payment requests, as discussed in §§ 37.805 through 37.815. Your payment method must take into account sound cash management practices by avoiding unwarranted cash advances. For an expenditure-based TIA, your payment provision must require the return of interest should excess cash balances occur, in accordance with § 37.820. For any TIA using the milestone payment method described in § 37.805(c), you must include language notifying the recipient that post-award administrators may adjust amounts of future milestone payments if a project's expenditures fall too far below the projections that were the basis for setting the amounts (see § 37.575(c) and § 37.1105(c)).

(f) Records retention and access to records. You must include the records retention requirement at § 37.910. You also must provide for access to for-profit and nonprofit participants' records, in accordance with § 37.915 and § 37.920.

(g) Patents and data rights. In designing the patents and data rights provision, you must set forth the minimum required Federal Government rights in intellectual property generated under the award and address related matters, as provided in §§ 37.840 through 37.875. It is important to define all essential terms in the patent rights provision.

(h) Foreign access to technology. You must include a provision, in accordance with § 37.875, concerning foreign access and domestic manufacture of products using technology generated under the award.

(i) Title to, management of, and disposition of tangible property. Your property provisions for for-profit and nonprofit participants must be in accordance with §§ 37.685 through 37.700.

(j) Financial management systems. For an expenditure-based award, you must specify the minimum standards for financial management systems of both for-profit and nonprofit participants, in accordance with §§ 37.615 and 37.620.

(k) Allowable costs. If the TIA is an expenditure-based award, you must specify the standards that both for-profit and nonprofit participants are to use to determine which costs may be charged to the project, in accordance with §§ 37.625 through 37.635, as well as § 37.830.

(l) Audits. If your TIA is an expenditure-based award, you must include an audit provision for both for-profit and nonprofit participants and subrecipients, in accordance with §§ 37.640 through 37.670 and § 37.680.

(m) Purchasing system standards. You should include a provision specifying the standards in §§ 37.705 and 37.710 for purchasing systems of for-profit and nonprofit participants, respectively.

(n) Program income. You should specify requirements for program income, in accordance with § 37.835.

(o) Financial and programmatic reporting. You must specify the reports that the recipient is required to submit and tell the recipient when and where to submit them, in accordance with §§ 37.880 through 37.905.

(p) Assurances for applicable national policy requirements. You must incorporate assurances of compliance with applicable requirements in Federal statutes, Executive orders, or regulations (except for national policies that require certifications). Appendix D to this part contains a list of commonly applicable requirements that you need to augment with any specific requirements that apply in your particular circumstances (e.g., general provisions in the appropriations act for the specific funds that you are obligating).

(q) Other routine matters. The agreement should address any other issues that need clarification, including who in the Government will be responsible for post-award administration and the statutory authority or authorities for entering into the TIA (see appendix B to this part for a discussion of statutory authorities). In addition, the agreement must specify that it takes precedence over any inconsistent terms and conditions in collateral documents such as attachments to the TIA or the recipient's articles of collaboration.

(a) If the recipient is a consortium that is not formally incorporated and the consortium members prefer to have the agreement signed by all of them individually, you may execute the agreement in that manner.

(b) If they wish to designate one consortium member to sign the agreement on behalf of the consortium as a whole, you should not decide whether to execute the agreement in that way until you review the consortium's articles of collaboration with legal counsel.

(1) The purposes of the review are to:

(i) Determine whether the articles properly authorize one participant to sign on behalf of the other participants and are binding on all consortium members with respect to the research project; and

(ii) Assess the risk that otherwise could exist when entering into an agreement signed by a single member on behalf of a consortium that is not a legal entity. For example, you should assess whether the articles of collaboration adequately address consortium members' future liabilities related to the research project (i.e., whether they will have joint and severable liability).

(2) After the review, in consultation with legal counsel, you should determine whether it is better to have all of the consortium members sign the agreement individually or to allow them to designate one member to sign on all members' behalf.

You must send a copy of the award document to the:

(a) Recipient. You must include on the first page of the recipient's copy a prominent notice about the current DoD requirements for payment by electronic funds transfer (EFT).

(b) Office you designate to administer the TIA. You are strongly encouraged to delegate post-award administration to the regional office of the Defense Contract Management Agency or Office of Naval Research that administers awards to the recipient. When delegating, you should clearly indicate on the cover sheet or first page of the award document that the award is a TIA, to help the post-award administrator distinguish it from other types of assistance instruments.

(c) Finance and accounting office designated to make the payments to the recipient.