LVAIC Uniform Guidance Meets Aids Member Campuses in Compliance

February 19, 2018, @ 8:00 AM

Michael W. Wascura, CPA, of Baker Tilly speaks to members of LVAIC regarding Uniform Guidance.

On Friday, February 9, 2018, a group of 30 cross-functional, cross-institutional staff from across the LVAIC community met at DeSales University to hear from Baker Tilly regarding the new regulations on Uniform Guidance. Michael W. Wascura, CPA; Andrea L. Caladie, CPA; and David Capitano, CPA served as the presenters.

Uniform guidance is intended to create standard procedures around reporting and practicing procurement for non-profit agencies receiving federal funding. While each specific federal agency has its own guidelines The new uniform guidance rules must be in place at the start of the next fiscal year, including the implementation of a procurement policy.

Among the new uniform guidance policy changes are the following requirements: implementing a conflict of interest policy, sharing services like those shared by LVAIC through the Joint Purchasing Program, vetting contractors and documenting the steps taken to determine the final purchasing decision, and more.

After presenting on the new policy, Baker Tilly recommended that member campuses create and execute an implementation plan for the procurement policy that will cover these new requirements. They also encourage members to run a gap analysis to understand members’ current policies in relation to the new requirements, as well as to make recommendations to create new processes and to educate and communicate these new policies across the campus community.

“It’s events like this where the value of collaboration really comes through across the LVAIC community,” explained Katy Thomas, LVAIC Strategic Partnership Director. “Every campus needed to hear this information, and now every campus has an outlet of peers to communicate questions or ideas without fear of repercussions or judgment. The best part of collaboration is the ability to trust each other and know that you truly aren’t alone when facing large changes like these new policies. The staff who attended this event aren’t only going to help each other, but each will individually benefit just from being connected to each other.”

After this presentation, the group moved into discussions on Cyber Security and General Data Protection Regulation. Changes and trends in these areas sparked more in-depth questions and small group discussions. After the presentations, all attendees remained for a networking period to build connections across campus lines and create peer groups to begin developing action plans against these concerns.