2.1.2 PI/PD Responsibilities

The Principal Investigator (PI) is ultimately responsible for both the technical goals of a research project and the fiscal management of such project, in accordance with sponsor and Institute regulations. Such fiscal management responsibilities include, but are not limited to:

• Preparation and submission of proposal budgets, including consideration of allowability of costs, cost sharing, commitment of effort and estimating methods
• Authorizing only those expenses that are reasonable and necessary to accomplish the project goals and that are consistent with the sponsor’s terms and conditions
• Seeking sponsor approval (in conjunction with the Office of Sponsored Programs), if necessary, for any significant change(s) in financial plans, rebudgeting or carryforward of funds
• Spending no more than the amount authorized by the sponsor for the project period
• Charging project costs directly to the project account
• Monitoring and reviewing expenditures in a timely fashion to assure their appropriateness and correctness
• If subrecipients are involved, reviewing the invoices of the subrecipient to ensure that expenditures are in line with performance
• Documenting cost-share commitments
• Identifying and accounting for any program income that accrues to the project
• Ensuring that those to whom authority for expenditure approval is being delegated (for example, on Personnel Service Forms (PSF’s), requisitions, purchase orders, travel expense statements and check requests) be documented by the Principal Investigator in writing on the Sign-Off Form for the individual project or by documenting the department’s award file
• Overseeing proper financial closeout of sponsored accounts, including approval and certification of the draft financial status report prepared by Grants and Contracts Accounting

It is important to emphasize that, while Principal Investigators can delegate their authority, they are still ultimately responsible for the transactions.