Minutes of the NIH Intramural Administrative Officers' Meeting
July 6, 2000
NIH Principal Administrative Officers Alternates
Present
Robert Dennis, NIMH, Chair Nan Freas, NINDS
Richard Freed, NIAID Trudy Welsh, NHGRI
Ana Ferreira, NINR Mary Slagle, NEI
Brenda Sandler, NIAAA
Evelyn Burrell, NICHD
Corrine Abbott, NIDCD
Rene Smither, NIDCR
Susan Harrelson, NIDDK
Bruce Wiggins, NIEHS
Anthony Pirrone, NLM
Edie Smith, CIT
John Savannah, ORS
Elaine Ayres, Clinical Ctr
Janis Mullaney, OD/OIR
I. Meeting of Principal Administrative Officers
Robert Dennis opened the meeting and reminded the group that there would be
no IAO meeting in August.
NIH Enterprise Directory System
Brenda Sandler briefly discussed her earlier concerns with NEDS regarding EOD
dates and duplicate entries for the same person. She said that most of the
earlier problems in this area have been corrected.
Survey on Administrative Structure
Bob reported that most ICs have submitted their data for this survey and that
Nancy Saltzman had created a set of tables. He cautioned that drawing
conclusions at this time from these charts would be premature, since there has
been no analysis of the data. Also, it is apparent that responses for a number
of items are reflecting incorrect or distorted data. This may be due to the
significant differences in administrative structures within the ICs. While these
data must be used cautiously when comparing one IC to another, it may be a useful
tool for examining relevant similarities or differences. It may also be
useful for exploring possibilities and validating new positions. It should
also be noted that this data is not intended to detract from position
classification requirements.
It was agreed that the draft versions of these surveys should have limited
circulation, but the final version should be circulated to all IAOs for
whatever use they find appropriate. When this draft data is provided to the
ICs, they will be able to compare their input with other ICs and correct and
refine the data they provided. The development of a career ladder for
administrative positions was part of the charter for the IAO, and the data
from this survey should help the IAOs accomplish that goal.
Issues from DDIR
Fellowship Payment System
Janis Mullaney told the group that October 1 was a target date - not a mandatory
date, for all ICs to be on the new system. She identified NICHD, NHLBI, NIDDK
and NCI as the pilot ICs for contacts for ICs coming "on board." The pilot
groups can be helpful in advising others on how to set up the required
infrastructure for the various processes (initiation, certification, activation).
NIH Academy Post-Baccalaureate IRTA Fellows
Dr. Gottesman approved the $21,000 initial stipend, plus travel to and from NIH,
for the post-baccalaureate IRTAs who are part of the NIH Academy. The higher
stipend was necessary so that these fellows can live in their assigned apartments
with other NIH Academy Post-Bac IRTAs.
Appointments involving Fogarty
Janis mentioned that "J-1 renewals for a 4th/5th year must be received by the
JVERC Committee no later than 120 days prior to the expiration of the Exchange
Visitor's Form IAP-66. In those instances where the Exhcnage Visitor has a
J-2 spouse who works, the package should be sent to the JVERC even earlier, i.e.,
180 days prior to the expiration of the IAP-66."
Credit Card use for Contract Purchases
During a recent OMA review it was pointed out that when credit cards are used
for purchases relating to a contract, these expenditures do not get tracked to
the contract and, therefore, are not included in contract expenditures.
II. Open Session
Shipment of Household Goods
James Baker, Chief, Transportation, NIH, discussed the new BPA with Associates
Relocation Management Company, Inc.(ARMC) for the movement of household goods.
Michelle Goldin and C.C. Cairns, from ARMC, provided more detail regarding the
services available through ARMC. The contact person for this BPA will be Pat
Baughman (202-626-5001). ICs will have the choice of using the new BPA or
continuing to process their household moves through NIH's relocation office.
Joel Papier has done an analysis comparing the two methods, and Jim Baker will
send a draft of this analysis to Bob Dennis for distribution to the IAOs.
Purchase Card Reconciliation for FY 2000
Wayne Berry discussed the procedures for closing out credit card purchases for
FY2000. Bob Dennis had e-mailed a copy of these procedures prior to the IAO
meeting. OFM staff have reviewed the year-end closing process every year to
make improvements. And, a group was formed consisting of IC budget and
administrative staff, and OFM, OPM and CIT staff to review this process. One of
the areas that has needed improvement is related to year-end credit card
obligations. Two important improvements are: 1) cardholders will be able to
enter pre-obligation amounts for up to 10 different CANs; and 2) each IC will
identify an individual who will have the authority to change pre-obligation
amounts after the end of the year. It is hoped that stopping the daily
downloads the night of Sept 26, will enable each cardholder to more easily
identify the orders which need to be included in their pre-obligation total.
A formal memo detailing these changes would be provided in August. The
group was interested in any other proposed changes.
NIH Intramural Database (NIDB)
Dale Graham, from the CIT Division of Enterprise and Custom Applications, stated
that Phase 1of the Scientific Directory will start August 1 for organizational
information. Later, phase 2 will be coordinated with words in Annual reports
- a more difficult aspect of the project. She offered to visit any IC that would
like to have her help organizing this effort.
NIH Intramall
An NIH IntraMall was presented by Pam Robbins of NCI. She introduced Adina Kaiden
from BioSpace, the new CRADA partner since December 1999. Ms. Robbins gave an
invitation to all present for the NIH IntraMall 2000 tent show on Wednesday, July
12 from 10:00 - 3:00.
Since BioSpace has become the new CRADA partner, the IntraMall has increased
its product volume from 90,000 to its present volume of 550,000 and will
have 1 million products by mid-September . Ms. Robbins described the new
features and enhancements developed by BioSpace and the NIH Usersgroup.
Some of those features were Rapid Order Entry; Logging of non-mall orders,
which allows all orders to be logged in one place; Automated
Reconciliation, which will allow orders placed and logged on the IntraMall
to be automatically matched up with US Bank charges presented through the
ADB saving valuable time. Also described were reporting capabilities within
the IntraMall such as a CAN Summary Report. As orders are logged and placed
in the Mall, a record is kept by CAN indicating dollars spent. As the
charges are reconciled, dollars are automatically updated in the CAN
Summary. This will enable Administrative Officers to have access at the
click of a button to a record of dollars outstanding for purchase
cardholders. Ms. Robbins said this will be extremely valuable for budget
reporting and with the end of the year pre-obligation process. The Advanced
Search process of the Mall has also been enhanced.
Training is available for all cardholders as well as shoppers. For
training, please contact Pam Robbins, 496-3688, BioSpace 1-888-NIH-MALL
(1-888-644-6255) or the CIT training site at http://training.cit.nih.gov.
Training can be conducted one-on-one or as a group. If you have any
questions regarding the NIH IntraMall, please contact BioSpace or Jeff
Weiner 301-496-7058.