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City of Chicago Contracts Letter, 8-28-06
Dear Colleagues,
As all of you are probably aware, over the past several years there have been a number of contract administrative challenges between the City of Chicago and UIC. Many of the issues center on contract language and liability. While this is no surprise to any of us, it has become a financial detriment to many departments. Unusually long delays on contract approval have translated into extremely tardy payments from the City for work UIC has performed.
The Office of the Vice Chancellor for External Affairs and the Office of Business and Financial Services are working with my office to bring a permanent solution to the City Contracts issue. While it will still be many months until a final accord is reached, we have been putting together a number of measures, which will assure more prompt payment, timelier contract approval and more accountability in various processes. We appreciate the willingness of various offices of the City of Chicago to work with us on this accord.
Admittedly, the City of Chicago is not the only party responsible for the slow contract approvals and payments; UIC bears partial blame for the problem. To this end, we will begin to review contract and payment approval processes to assure that the most expedient and effective business practices are being used.
There are several actions being taken immediately to improve our contract processes. First, Executive Assistant Vice President for Business and Finance, Heather Haberaecker has asked that those units that engage in sponsored programs contract work establish an anticipation account. This is the most effective way of letting all of us know that you are still awaiting contract execution. Without this information, it is hard for us to know about your situation and, therefore, be your advocate with the City. Furthermore, by using anticipation accounts, your staff’s workload will be reduced by not having to make unnecessary expense transfers. More information about anticipation accounts may be obtained at the Office of Business and Financial Services (OBFS) Web Site www.obfs.uillinois.edu.
Second, even if the contract has been executed and expenses are reflected on the account, we do not always know whether departments have billed the City for these expenses. Again, we cannot be your advocate with the City regarding delayed payments unless we know about it. Accordingly, effective September 1, 2006, we are requesting that all departmentally prepared invoices for “all” grants and contracts be forwarded to the Grants and Contracts Office so that we can establish follow-up dates with the City and other parties in the financial system if payment has not been received on a timely basis. We are creating a separate Cash and Receivable Management unit within Grants and Contracts that will be responsible for timely follow-up with all external parties to see that outstanding funds owed are received. If you have any questions about these two initiatives, Heather can be reached at hjh2@uillinois.edu or 6-2860.
Third, in order to enhance our communications about sponsored agreements, not just with the City of Chicago but also with all agencies, Luis Vargas has been designated as the UIC contact person. The City and all agencies have been told to send all proposed contracts to Luis who will in turn notify the primary departmental contact of receipt. Luis should be contacted with all questions, comments and requests about a sponsored agreement. Luis can be reached at 996-6150 or lrvargas@uic.edu.
Fourth, it is important that the primary contact in your college working with the sponsoring agency remain engaged in the business arrangements of the agreement. New contracts and renewals should be monitored and any delay in receiving appropriate authorization to proceed with work should be directed to Luis Vargas.
In the coming months we will be putting into place additional mechanisms to monitor and expedite agreement processing. I will keep you advised of these changes and I ask for your cooperation in assuring that there is departmental compliance with these procedures.
Thank you for your assistance and support.
Eric A. Gislason, Vice Chancellor for Research
Heather J. Haberaecker, Executive Assistant Vice President for Business
and Finance
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