Can sponsored accounts be used to support Core Services Charges?
The converged communications charge is not an allowable direct cost on a sponsored project and cannot be assigned to a sponsored account. The converged communications charge, by definition, represents the provision of multiple telecommunications and networking services in a “bundle.” The benefit derived by and cost to be assigned to an individual sponsored project from any one of the services within the bundle cannot be readily determined, which is the essential criterion of the Federal government’s definition of an indirect cost. In fact, most of the services (e.g., local telephone calls) had been designated as indirect costs to sponsored projects before their inclusion in a bundled format. In addition, the converged communications charge is allocated by person on a once-per-year basis, and not on the basis of usage. This further complicates the allocation basis for sponsored projects. By extension, as the converged communications charge is not an allowable direct charge to sponsored
