Top 10 Things that Can and Do Go Wrong at the Department Level CReATE ver. 04/08 © 2008 Florida State University. All rights reserved
Number One Failure to submit proposal to SRS for review and approval prior to submission to sponsor
Number Two Principal Investigators, Chairs and/or Deans sign and accept award on behalf of FSU
Number Three Failure to obtain Chair and Dean approval for cost sharing/matching commitments or requests for indirect costs waivers prior to submitting to SRS
Number Four Applying wrong indirect cost rate in a proposal (i.e., using main campus rate when work will be performed at NHMFL; using off-campus rate when work will be performed on campus; using OSA rate for a research project)
Number Five Treating FSU faculty in proposal as a consultant
Number Six Expectation of receiving a salary increase simply because proposal included funds to cover an increase
Number Seven Expectation of receiving a salary increase simply because proposal included funds to cover an increase
Number Eight Performing work and/or delivering the results to a sponsor prior to receiving an award
Number Nine Authorizing personnel without an appointment to work on a project
Number Ten Subcontracting out more than 50% of an award
Number Eleven Making i nappropriate charges to projects and untimely initiation of cost transfers
Number Twelve Documenting or certifying an effort report without “a suitable means of verification” (i.e., first- hand knowledge) of work performance
Number Thirteen Failure to satisfy and/or properly document cost sharing commitments
Number Fourteen Nepotism – PI employing relatives on a project
Number Fifteen Relying on a program officer’s authorization for prior approvals required by terms of award
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