CERTIFICATION OF EFFORT

Objective:

To collect a certification of effort, as required by Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular No. A-21, Section J8(c)1 (see Appendix A)

Purpose:

Certification of effort is required by OMB Circular No. A-21. For employees paid on the biweekly payroll, the certification has always been, and will continue to be, collected on the time input document. For employees paid on the monthly payroll, the certification is collected on the Annual Certification Statement.

Responsibility:

Department/Divisional Level:
Maintain effective systems to return certification documents by the established due date. Each faculty member should certify their own ACS. Principal investigators should also sign the ACSs for non-faculty employees charged to their awards unless they have the employee sign their own ACS. Administrators should not certify an ACS other than their own. However, in cases where the employee or principal investigator are not available, an administrator may certify the effort provided they can document their basis for verifying that the actual work was performed.

See also the Guidelines for Managing Faculty and Other Salaried Personnel Effort and Compensation Expense Related to Sponsored Projects at http://adminet.chicago.edu/adminmals/guidelines.managing.doc

Comptroller’s Office, Payroll Department:
Approximately 90 days after the close of the fiscal year, generate and distribute Annual Certification Statements to departments. Ensure that all statements have been signed, dated and returned by the deadline.

Federal regulations require the University to have a signed Annual Certification Statement on file for every employee that was paid from a restricted account. If Payroll does not receive the completed Annual Certification Statement by the established due date, the Payroll Department will have no alternative but to reverse the charges from the Federal account to the department's guaranteed account.

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