Interagency Contracts (IAC's)

Interagency Contracts (IAC agreements) are negotiated between component institutions of the University of Texas to permit faculty and staff appointed at one component institution to work for a period of time at another component.

IAC Agreements come in two types:

1. UT Austin is the Performing Agency. This means that a UT Austin employee is working at another component for a period of time. For these agreements, UT Austin must bill the component for the employee's salary. The billing is handled by the Contracts & Grants section of the Office of Accounting.
   
2. UT is the Receiving Agency. This means that an employee of another component institution is working at UT Austin. The UT Austin department that appoints the employee then receives bills for the employee's salary. The bills are paid by the departments.

Establishing IACs:

Analysis:

When UT Austin is the Performing Agency

Current Process:

1. Contract negotiated by VPBA's office.
2. Copy of IAC agreement sent to Contracts & Grants and to Payroll.
3. Contracts & Grants establishes a 26 account to bill the component for the employee's salary.
4. Appointment of employee made on the component payroll account, a 14 account established specifically for salaries of employees under IAC agreements.
5. Salary charges from the component payroll account are transferred to the 26 account and a bill is sent to the component.

Breakdowns in the current process:

1. Copies of IAC Agreements not received by Contracts & Grants

• Contracts & Grants unaware an IAC agreement has been entered into
• 26 account not set up to bill the component

2. Payroll does not make salary transfers from component payroll account to 26 account.
3. Components are not sure which office to contact when they need a bill to be sent under an IAC agreement.

Recommendations to improve process:

1. VPBA's office sends copy of IAC only to Contracts & Grants
2. Contracts & Grants establishes a report suspense schedule for the 26 accounts set up under IAC agreements.
3. When report suspense comes up, Contracts & Grants requests that Payroll (via @PRCST) transfer funds from the component payroll account to the 26 account in order to generate bills.
4. Future IAC agreements should specify Contracts & Grants is the point of contact for components when UT Austin is the Performing Agency.

When UT Austin is the Receiving Agency

Current Process:

1. Contract negotiated by VPBA's office.
2. Components generate bills for the employee's salary.
3. Bills are sent to the employee's department for payment.

Breakdowns in the current process when UT Austin is Receiving Agency:

1. Contracts created by VPBA's office do not clearly specify that bills should be sent to the departments, not to the Office of Accounting.
2. Components do not know which office to contact if their bills are not paid in a timely manner.

• Historically, the components have requested @PRCST (the payroll customer service team) to follow up on unpaid billings.
• However, it is not within the scope of the mission of @PRCST to handle these types of issues.

Recommendations to improve process:

• Add specific billing information to the boilerplate IAC agreement to specify which department to bill and give the components the name of a department contact.
• Send copies of IAC agreements to the department contact specified in each agreement, with a reminder that the department is responsible for paying the bills from the components.

Alternative recommendation to improve process:

• Transfer responsibility for generating Interagency Agreements to the Office of Accounting.
• Ownership of the receivables and the payables would reside within the Office of Accounting.
• Components could be given the name of a single point of contact with their questions.
• Reduce confusion over who is responsible for what part of the process.

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