Effective September 1, 2016, RCUH will permit the use of scanned or faxed copies of most documents processed through RCUH’s Finance and Human Resources Departments.  Refer to Policy 2.013, Signature and Document Approval Process,¹ for limitations on this allowance.

Signatory Sequence Requirements

Effective September 1, 2016, all documents processed through RCUH must be signed by the vendor and/or project authority before RCUH will sign the document.  Refer to Policy 2.013, Signature and Document Approval Process. This applies to all documents, including but not limited to contracts and other vendor terms and conditions.  Having RCUH as the last signatory will ensure that all documents are properly executed.  RCUH understands that certain vendor terms and conditions may require that the vendor be the last signatory; in these situations, exceptions will be made on a case-by-case basis.

Signature Delegation

Effective September 1, 2016, all signing authority delegations must be kept on file by the respective project/fiscal office.  As a reminder, delegatees may sign “for” the delegator, but may not sign the delegator’s actual name.

Questions may be directed to Doug Tonokawa at (808) 988-8320 or [email protected].

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¹ Note that the approval/signature authority charts that are currently included in Policy 2.201, Purchase Orders, will be moved to Section 3 of Policy 2.013, Signature and Document Approval Process.

Effective January 1, 2017, RCUH will be eliminating the discount on the indirect cost rate for advance funded intramural projects service ordered to RCUH. Currently, the indirect cost rate is 1.5% for projects with advance funds and 3.2% for projects without advance funds. All projects will henceforth be charged the 3.2% rate. RCUH regrets that it is unable to continue the discounted rate. Revenues are needed to implement long delayed and much-needed infrastructure upgrades to RCUH’s IT systems and to enable RCUH to provide enhanced project services. We appreciate your understanding.

In October, a reminder notice will be sent to the lead fiscal administrators along with a list of their affected accounts.

If you have any questions, please contact Doug Tonokawa at 988-8320 or [email protected].

Effective July 2016, RCUH will be sending monthly email notifications to Principal Investigators (PIs) and Fiscal Administrators (FAs) regarding intramural or revolving accounts that are nearing termination and/or have a deficit balance. We request that PIs work with their FA to take the necessary action regarding their account(s).

We hope that these notifications will be helpful to the PIs and FAs in managing their accounts. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the Project Administration section at [email protected].  Thank you.

The Agreement for Services (“Agreement”) template has been updated and revised effective July 12, 2016. There are now two versions of the Agreement: one for UH Projects, and one for Direct Projects.

The new templates are available as drop-down options in the Financial Portal’s Purchase Order document, and as Attachment 8a (UH Projects) and Attachment 8b (Direct Projects), in the Procurement & Disbursing Document Library.

The terms in Attachments 4 and 5 of the Agreement for Services are also a part of the Attachment 56 Request for Proposal Template. As such, Attachment 56 has also been revised and separated into Attachment 56a (UH Projects) and Attachment 56b (Direct Projects).

For those of you that are interested, the following table lists the significant changes that were made:

Section of the Agreement for Services	Change (the numbers reference the current versions)
Recitals, No. 3	A total “not to exceed” amount must now be included.
Attachment 1	Notes/instructions for the creator of the Agreement have been added.
Attachment 2	Notes/instructions for the creator of the Agreement have been added.
Attachment 3	Notes/instructions for the creator of the Agreement have been added. Additional standard language under the heading “Additional Requirements” has been added
Attachment 4	The Standards of Conduct Declaration has been revised to closely follow the standard State version
Attachment 5	No. 5 (Subcontracts and Assignments) – A reference to RCUH’s need to also approve subcontracts and assignments entered into by the contractor’s subcontractors/assignees, has been added. No. 7 (Modifications of Agreement) – A notation that modifications are not binding on RCUH unless RCUH has approved the modification in writing, has been added. No. 8 (Suspension of Agreement), No. 9 (Termination of Agreement for Default), and No. 10 (Termination of Agreement for Convenience) – the “Suspensions and Termination of Agreement” section of the old Agreement for Services has been separated into three sections: suspensions, terminations for default, and terminations for convenience. Additional language has also been added to Nos. 9 and 10. UH Agreement) No. 12 (Indemnification and Defense) – UH, the State of Hawaii, and the Project have been added as indemnitees. (Direct Project Agreement) No. 12 (Indemnification and Defense) – The State of Hawaii and the Project have been added as indemnitees. No. 15 (Ownership and Intellectual Property Rights) – This section has been rewritten to account for current requirements, and separated into three subcategories: (a) physical material, (b) patentable inventions, and (c) copyrights. (UH Agreement) No. 16 (Publicity) – In addition to the specific project, UH itself has been added as an entity that cannot be referred to without prior approval. No. 17 (Payment Procedures; Final Payment) – This section now specifically requires satisfactory performance as determined by RCUH and as specified in Attachments 1, 2, and 3. No. 23 (Counterparts) – This is a new section that has been added to allow each party to sign separate copies of the Agreement (which together shall constitute one agreement). (UH Agreement) No. 24 (Federal Provisions) – Separate references to Attachments 32a, 32b, 32c, and 32d are now included, to ensure that the correct Attachment 32 is agreed to by the contractor.

Due to the pervasiveness of the changes, a redline is not provided, as it would be difficult to review.

Questions may be directed to Erin H. Yoda at (808) 956-3969 or [email protected].

The print layouts for the RCUH Reports and UH Project Fiscal Reports have been modified to resemble the improved form layouts with clearer text, simple borders, and an overall improved layout. Most reports should fit to one page. However, there may be instances when a report may not reasonably fit on one page due to the large number of information lines. In those cases, it may be necessary to manually adjust the page setup.

For optimal print layouts, we recommend using Firefox or Internet Explorer as your web browser. Page Setup should be set at Shrink to Fit the page, with margins of 0.2 inches or 5 millimeters. To color or shade the header, subtotal, and total rows, Page Setup can be set to enable “Print Background colors and images”.

Other Updates

The Report titles have been modified to include the specified month or period queried. For example, the Budget Status Report Summary for the month of June 2016 will have a report title of “Budget Status Report – Summary (06/2016)”.

The Detail of Cost Report Download function has been modified to provide one consolidated file for both PO and Non PO Transactions (in csv format). Prior to this modification, the Download function provided two separate files for the PO and Non PO Transactions. In addition, a new column has been added to the Detail of Cost Report for “Description”. These changes to the Detail of Cost Report will not be reflected in the Mass Print version (mdcr.xls) at this time.

If you have any questions or feedback, please contact Maile Brooks at [email protected] or (808) 988-8340.

The UH Office of Research Services (ORS) announced its new subaward process in its June 2016 newsletter. To align with the new subaward process, a new field – the UH subaward number – has been added to the RCUH purchase order (PO). This will facilitate the tracking of all POs related to a subaward.

Instructions

When creating a PO for a subaward, select the UH subaward option (see below) and enter the subaward number. If no number is entered and the field is left blank, an error message will appear. The UH subaward number can be obtained from the first page of the fully executed subaward agreement that the PI and FA receives from ORS.

Please finalize or approve the RCUH PO after receiving the fully executed subaward agreement.  At this initial implementation of the UH Subaward field, the field will not be searchable. However, the ability to search this field will be added in a future enhancement.

For more information on the UH ORS new subaward process, please refer to the UH ORS Newsletter – June 2016.

Policy 2.602, Automobile Mileage Reimbursements for RCUH Employees, has been updated as follows:

• Section 4 – clarifies that the Travel Completion Form should be used when claiming mileage as part of a trip.
• Section 5.b. – clarifies that business mileage from an employee’s residence may be claimed if the employee’s residence has been formally approved as the employee’s principal work location, and the approval is kept on file by the project and Fiscal Administrator.

Questions may be directed to Erin H. Yoda at (808) 956-3969 or [email protected].

The RCUH fiscal year-end processing has been completed. You may now approve purchase orders and payment documents online. The first check run for fiscal year 2017 will be on Wednesday, July 6, 2016 at 4:00 pm.

 

Reminder: Service dates are required for all payment transactions through Monday, August 31. For payments approved after August 5, $100,000 or greater, and with service dates of June 30 or earlier, please complete the attached “RCUH AP Worksheet”. Please include estimates or projections for invoices that have not been received as of August 5.  Please email your worksheet to Liane Murai at [email protected] by Monday, August 8.  Please refer to the June 20, 2016 General News item for more information.

The deadline to submit Statements of Qualification (“SOQ”) in response to the June 22, 2016 Notice to Attorneys Interested in Providing Legal Services to the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii, has been extended to 12:00 noon on Thursday, July 7, 2016.

Please email your SOQ to: [email protected], or deliver your SOQ to: Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii, 1601 East-West Road, #4020, Honolulu, Hawaii 96848, Attn: Erin H. Yoda.

SOQ forms are available here, and may also be requested by telephone at (808) 956-3969.

Reminders:

 

1.  Fiscal Year-End Processing – see 5/13/16 Current News item

 

2.  Service Dates for Payments During June 30 – August 31, 2016 Period – see 6/20/16 Current News item

 

Should you have any questions, please contact Maile Brooks at 988-8340 or [email protected].  Thank you!