Is it acceptable to budget the salaries of administrative and clerical staff on federal grants?
Yes, if the costs can be explicitly included in the proposal budget and the individuals involved can be specifically identified with the project. OMB Circular A-21 allows these costs in the cases of • large, complex programs; • projects which involve extensive data accumulation, analysis and entry, searching literature and reporting; • projects that require making travel and meeting arrangements for large numbers of people, etc. Agency approval of the line item(s) can be assumed if the salary of administrative or clerical staff is budgeted and it is not specifically denied in the notice of grant award or in any related correspondence from the sponsor to the awardee institution.
