Subcontracts
The question below was from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories in April 2025. Answers from Amy & Ann are below.
(2) We also have a secondary question related to supplier contract set up, as it relates to subcontracts. Do you have subcontracts at Whitehead? If so, are you using the supplier contract process to establish the purchase order/tracking contract? Do you use the supplier contract process for other items outside of subcontracts (such as capital projects perhaps?). Are these set up by the procurement office or another team? Our procurement team has offered that our OSP team could set up the supplier contract/sub PO internally but we are curious to how our peers are proceeding and if there are any concerns for audit or separation of duties others may have taken into consideration here.
- No, currently we currently don’t have any subcontracts at Whitehead, only subawards. However, we would most likely do the same for the subcontracts as we do for the subawards. Our subawards are processed through our PreAward OSP office, so our Procurement Office is not really involved in the sub process. Our Procurement Team does not use the Supplier Contract module, so our PostAward office is the only group that uses it. So our Procurement Office also felt that they did not need to be involved with any of this/this process.
- A combination of our PostAward office and the Finance office set up the Supplier, since we also need to have the other institution’s W-9 form.
- Our PostAward office sets up the Subrecipient in Workday as well as the Supplier Contract.
- We don’t think there’s a conflict of interest, since I believe this is all written into our audit controls. But we don’t have many outgoing subawards.
- It was my understanding that PostAward is the only group using the Supplier Contract process. However, I’m not sure if we use the Supplier Contract process anywhere else in the Institute, so maybe Ann can confirm that information.
Supplier ContractsAt this point we are only using Workday Supplier Contracts for sponsored subawards. If we move beyond that usage I would expect that Procurement would be the group to own the contract set up/maintenance. I believe what Amy is saying is that the process is that AP/Finance sets up the Supplier and obtains the W9 from the vendor and Post Award creates the Supplier Contract. This provides the appropriate segregation of duties, i..e no single person can both create a Supplier and then initiate payment to said Supplier.