Research financial compliance review framework
- A compliance review framework has been implemented at the University of Waterloo to mitigate the risk of transactions being charged to research accounts that are ineligible, unauthorized, or inadequately documented
- Depending on the type and materiality of the transaction, the financial compliance review may be completed before the transaction is processed or on a test-basis after the transaction is processed
- The review may be completed by a member of the Research Finance Training and Compliance Team or a designated reviewer with the department, school, or institute
- Pre-review of high risk transactions (by team or department depending on materiality and model chosen)
- Post-review of low risk and low materiality transactions on a test basis
- Post-review of purchasing card transactions
- Post-review of Graduate Research Scholarships (GRS) transactions
Internal review
- The Office of Research completes twice yearly reviews of research account transactions. The aim of these reviews is to ensure that expense transactions charged to research accounts are:
- Eligible expenses with respect to sponsor agency guidelines
- Authorized by the PI or an appropriate delegated signing authority and
- Supported by appropriate back up documentation
- In each internal review, a random sample of research projects and transactions is selected. Source documentation is then reviewed for each transaction selected and will be used to verify eligibility and authorization
Financial compliance training
- New hire training:
- Include copies of past training slides
- Annual refresher training offered once a year