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Papier, Joel (NIH/OD) [E] Tuesday, April 11, 2006 2:52 PM List ICTRAVELPOC-L Stith, Kenneth (NIH/OD) [E]; Howard, Florence (NIH/OD) [E]; Grant, Darryl (NIH/OD) [E]; Sieber, Anna (NIH/OD) [E] OFM Transmittal No. 248 - Use of Appropriated Funds for the Provision of Food at Conferences High GAO Case Summary.doc
Importance: Attachments: All,
Recently, you may have received the attached GAO Case Summary that was transmitted by the OD Procurement Office to the Purchasing Agent community. As a result, this office would like to reiterate that this Summary document only represents a summation of the recent March 3, 2005 GAO Decision (B-300826) and does not in any way alter the existing policy guidelines contained in NIH Manual Chapter (MC) 1160-1, "Entertainment". As such, it is NIH policy that you cannot authorize the use of appropriated funds for the provision of meals, at a formal conference held within the defined local travel area. This would be a conference, that by definition, is not considered as either "training" or "conference training" and would be linked to Event "C" in the corresponding Appendix 3 of MC 1160-1. In this scenario, when all of the applicable conditions are met, use of appropriated funds may be authorized for the provision of light refreshments. In addition, any event, in order to be deemed as either "training" or "conference training", must meet all of the statutory and regulatory requirements as outlined in the aforementioned Appendix 3. Please make wide distribution of this guidance to your respective IC Administrative Officer communities. Thanks,
Joel