Licensed attorneys who wish to provide specialized legal services to the Research Corporation of the University of Hawai‘i (RCUH) for the fiscal year commencing July 1, 2017 are invited to submit a Statement of Qualifications and Expression of Interest (SOQ) to RCUH pursuant to HRS § 103D-304.

RCUH is currently looking to contract for legal services in the following areas:

1. Employment Law (employment, employee benefits, disciplinary, termination, and discrimination/retaliation issues). Services shall include but not be limited to:

a. Drafting, reviewing, and providing advice and recommendations relating thereto;
b. Providing advice and recommendations regarding responses to claims asserted by current and former employees;
c. Participating in negotiations regarding items (a) and (b); and
d. Providing guidance on applicable statutes, regulations, and other legal requirements.

Previous experience on behalf of employers with employment related claims is essential, and previous experience advising government agencies is preferred.

2. Immigration Law (temporary visas). Services shall include but not be limited to:
a. Drafting, reviewing, and providing advice and recommendations relating thereto;
b. Completing and filing temporary visa applications and related documentation; and
c. Providing guidance on applicable statutes, regulations, and other legal requirements.

3. Payroll & Taxes (IRS compliance, tax guidance, foreign payroll, contractor payments). Services shall include, but not be limited to, providing guidance on applicable statutes, regulations, and other legal requirements.

Please email your SOQ to: [email protected], or deliver your SOQ to: Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii, Attn: Erin H. Yoda, 1601 East-West Road, #4020, Honolulu, Hawaii 96848.

SOQs must be postmarked or received by Wednesday, June 21, 2017, to be eligible for consideration. An SOQ received after June 21, 2017 will be considered a “late submittal” for the balance of the fiscal year as follows: a late submittal received between June 22, 2017 – July 24, 2017, will be considered beginning October 1, 2017.

SOQ forms are available here, or may be requested by telephone at (808) 956-3969.

We previously announced on October 14, 2015, that the Office of Management and Budget’s Uniform Administrative Requirements, Cost Principles, and Audit Requirements for Federal Awards (“Uniform Guidance”) would begin imposing new requirements for purchases above $150,000 following two initial grace periods that were scheduled to end on June 30, 2017.

It was recently announced in the Federal Register that a third year has been added to the grace period. Thus, the following will not be required until July 1, 2018:

For purchases over $150,000 using federal funds:

1. An independent cost/price estimate prior to receiving proposals/bids/quotes;
2. Public advertising; and
3. Sealed bidding.

In an effort to simplify the public advertising and sealed bidding requirements, we have been working with CommercePoint, Inc. (“SuperQUOTE”) to create a new RCUH buyer account that can fully meet these requirements.  Once in place, the RCUH buyer account will offer a sealed bidding option, and will also publicly advertise solicitations posted as a “Sealed Bid.”  Details regarding the new SuperQUOTE RCUH buyer account will be forthcoming.

Questions may be directed to Erin H. Yoda at 808-956-3969 or [email protected].

The fiscal year-end cut-off for RCUH on-line payment transactions is 12:00 noon on Friday, June 30, 2017.   All on-line payment transactions processed after Friday, June 30 through Thursday, August 31, will require service dates.  The service date format is MM/DD/YY.

For payments that will be processed or approved after Friday, August 4, 2017, are $100,000 or greater, and have service dates of June 30, 2017 or earlier, please complete the attached RCUH AP Worksheet.  Please include estimates or projections for invoices that have not been received as of August 4.    Please email your worksheet to Liane Murai at [email protected] by Monday, August 7.

A service date field is provided on all payment forms and is identified with the heading “S/D”.  The service date is the date goods are received or services are performed.  For certain types of payments including travel completions, petty cash reimbursements, extended services, etc., the service date entered should be the last day of the period covered by the payment.  However, if the service period covers multiple fiscal years, allocate costs in each fiscal year incurred (i.e. if the service period is from June 1, 2017 to July 31, 2017, record costs incurred from June 1 to June 30 with a 06/30/17 service date and costs incurred from July 1 to July 31 with a 07/31/17 service date).

This information is needed to ensure that liabilities of RCUH are properly reported as of June 30, 2017.  Our auditors, Accuity LLP, will be reviewing selected documents processed during this period as part of their audit procedures.  Accordingly, please be advised that we may be requesting copies of payment documents for review.

Please contact Maile Brooks at 988-8340 or [email protected] if you have any questions.  Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.

 

Important Dates:

On-line payment and purchasing transactions must be approved by Fiscal Administrators by 12:00 noon on Friday, June 30 to be included in FY 2017.  The last check run for the fiscal year will be on Friday, June 30, 2017.  Pending transactions will be saved, and will not be automatically deleted or disapproved in the RCUH financial system. 

During the period July 1 through July 5, on-line payment and purchasing transactions can be initiated, but Fiscal Administrators will not have the ability to approve transactions.  Transactions will not be posted to project accounts until year-end processing is completed.  The RCUH financial system is scheduled to reopen on Thursday, July 6.  The first check run for FY 2018 is scheduled for Thursday, July 6 at 4:00 PM.

On an emergency basis only, manual checks can be issued during this period. Fiscal Administrators should contact RCUH Disbursing at [email protected].

Project reports will be accessible on the RCUH website.  However, until processing resumes on July 6, report balances will reflect transactions posted through June 30 only.

Please contact Maile Brooks at 988-8340 or [email protected] if you have any questions.

NOMINATE YOUR PROJECT STAFF FOR THE 2017 RCUH OUTSTANDING EMPLOYEES OF THE YEAR:

RECOGNITIONS
Three award categories are available:

1. Researcher/Project Manager/Professional (exempt status position)
2. Project Support Staff (non-exempt status position)
3. Team (2-5 staff in exempt and/or non-exempt regular status positions)

The awards encourage, recognize, and reward RCUH employees who have made demonstrable, significant, and exemplary contributions to their project during the past fiscal year (July 2016–June 2017) or years.

 AWARDS

• $1,000 to the first place awardee in each category
• $500 to the second place awardee in each category

All nominees will be recognized at the RCUH Awards Luncheon on Monday, October 30, 2017, where the awardees will be announced.

NOMINATIONS
A Principal Investigator may submit one nomination.  Team nominations are limited to no more than five individuals.

 DEADLINE
The deadline to submit nomination/s is July 14, 2017.  Email all nominations to [email protected].  Click here for the nomination form.

For more information, please refer to policy 3.450 Outstanding Employees of the Year Awards  or contact Gayle Hamasaki at [email protected].

The following documents have been revised and are now available in the Procurement & Disbursing Document Library:

1. Agreement for Services Amendment Template (used when drafting an amendment to an existing Agreement for Services) – The template has been updated to include convenient drop-down menu options that allow users to select how a contract modification is explained (i.e., you can choose to either replace an entire attachment with new language, or add language to an attachment). Other minor changes have also been made to the template for clarification purposes.
2. Attachment 43 Wire Transfer Request Form – The form has been updated and redesigned to be more user-friendly and self-explanatory. The only new informational fields that have been added are Beneficiary (Payee) Address and a list of the current foreign currencies available for wire payments.

Questions may be directed to Erin H. Yoda at (808) 956-3969 or [email protected].

 

We recently emailed a survey (from [email protected]) to Principal Investigators, Fiscal Administrators, and Project Staff requesting feedback on RCUH services.  A number of you have responded, and we thank you for your input.

The survey is open until April 28, 2017, so if you have not yet responded, please take a few minutes to provide your feedback, which will identify issues that require our attention and will enable RCUH to improve its services to you.  Your responses will be confidential, and it will not be possible to link responses to specific individuals.

Thank you for your assistance.  If you have any questions, please contact the Corporate Services Department at [email protected].

Survey link:  https://www.research.net/r/B82DYGP

 

 

 

Effective April 19, 2017, Policy 2.013, Signature and Document Approval Requirements, was updated as follows:

Section II.A. has been revised to state as follows:

A. On forms and legal documents that require a signature, the following signature types are acceptable:

1. A manual signature (i.e., a signature that is handwritten onto a hardcopy document), whether scanned, faxed, or submitted in original form; and

2. An electronic signature obtained using the State of Hawai‘i eSign service.

The above revision acknowledges RCUH’s use and acceptance of electronic signatures obtained using the State of Hawai‘i eSign service.  The service incorporates a method (that meets federal and state law) of securely verifying the identity of an individual affixing an electronic signature to a document.

For those of you who have already registered to use eSign, you will be receiving more information (including training options and your username/password) soon.  If you have not previously registered, and would like to do so, you may contact Janice Sato at [email protected].

Please note that only users who will be initiating the transmittal of RCUH documents for electronic signature (i.e., users who route documents for signature) should register for eSign.  If you only sign documents, you DO NOT need to register. Please also note that the use of eSign is not mandatory, and is only being provided for your convenience, if you choose to utilize it.

Questions may be directed to Erin H. Yoda at (808) 956-3969 or [email protected].

Congratulations to our 2016 outstanding employees of the year!  Videos of all the nominees are available in the Awards section of the RCUH website.

Researcher/Project Manager Professional

• First Place
  Tyler Bogardus, Small Vertebrate Pest Stabilization Specialist
  O‘ahu  Army Natural Resources Program, Pacific International Center for High Technology Research
  Nominated by Dr. David Duffy

• Second Place Tie
  Violet Horvath, Director
  Pacific Disabilities Center, UH John A. Burns School of Medicine
  Nominated by Dr. Satoru Izutsu

• Second Place Tie
  Brett Taylor, PIFSC Fisheries Life History Biologist
  UH Joint Institute for Marine and Atmospheric Research
  Nominated by Dr. Mark Merrifield

Project Support Staff

• First Place Tie
  Alisa Kimura, Fiscal and Program Associate
  O‘ahu Invasive Species Committee, UH Pacific Cooperative Studies Unit
  Nominated by Dr. David Duffy

• First Place Tie
  Angela Schultz, Senior Observer
  Pan-STARRS, UH Institute for Astronomy
  Nominated by Dr. Richard Wainscoat

Congratulations, again, to all the awardees and nominees, their Principal Investigators, and the projects represented!

 

 

Policy 2.601, RCUH Employee Travel, has been updated as follows:

• Section 2.e.ii. (Baggage Fees)
  • Clarifies that travelers must state on the Travel Completion, the business purpose for incurring a baggage fee when claiming a reimbursement for Same Day Travel.

• Section 3 (Travel Request and Advance Form)
  • Clarifies that a Travel Request must be completed even if no travel expenses will be paid directly to the traveler (such as when purchase orders are issued to vendors for the traveler, or if travel is supported by an outside source and there is no cost to RCUH). This is to document the authorization for the travel.
  • Requires that the business purpose of the trip, and how it benefits the account/project, must be stated on the Travel Request.

• Section 4 (Travel Completion Form)
  • Clarifies that an employee may only claim his/her own expenses (i.e., an employee cannot seek reimbursement for paying a non-employee’s expenses). If shared employee expenses (such as a shared room) are claimed, the reason must be documented.
  • Explains the process for claiming a pre-boarding allowance.
  • Clarifies the “original receipt” requirement and definition, and explains the process for claiming expenses if a receipt is lost.

• Section 5.a. (Same Day Travel)
  • Explains that RCUH employees may receive an allowance of up to $20 per day, which is reportable and taxable as income.  The allowance will be reported to RCUH Payroll (and to UH Payroll for UH employees).
  • The prior reference to Form 4A – Tax Calculation Form was removed, as it is no longer required, due to the new Same Day Travel check box on the Travel Request.

• Section 5.b. (Same Island Travel)
  • Clarifies that a travel allowance for expenses incurred on the same island of an employee’s residence is allowed, if an overnight stay is required.

• The former Section 6 (Use of the RCUH Website) has been deleted.

• Other minor changes have been made throughout the policy for clarification purposes.

Questions may be directed to Erin H. Yoda at (808) 956-3969 or [email protected].