NON-DELINQUENCY ON FEDERAL DEBT
UNC Procedure for Compliance with National Institutes of Health Grant Conditions

The Federal Debt Collection Procedure Act provides that an organization or individual that is indebted to the United States, and has a judgment lien filed against it, is ineligible to receive a Federal grant. Before NIH will award a grant to UNC, the university must certify that neither it nor any person to be paid from grant funds is delinquent in repaying any Federal debt.

Anyone who has been judged to be in default on a Federal debt and who has had a judgment lien filed against him or her should not be listed as a participant in an application for NIH support until the judgment is paid in full or is otherwise satisfied. No funds may be re-budgeted following an award to pay such an individual. NIH will disallow costs charged to awards that provide funds to individuals in violation of this Act.

The following procedures apply to all grants to the university from the National Institutes of Health:

1. The Principal Investigator is responsible for ensuring that no personnel paid with funds received from that grant are delinquent on any debt to the federal government. 
   
   

2. All personnel (current and new hires) who will be paid in full or in part with funds from an NIH grant will be required by the Principal Investigator (PI) to read and sign an Employee Federal Debt Collection Certification form prior to starting work that will be paid from NIH grant funds. This form will certify that the employee is not delinquent on repaying any federal debt. 
   
   

3. If an employee working on an NIH grant becomes delinquent and has a judgment lien filed against him/her during the period in which he/she is being paid from the grant, he/she will immediately notify the PI on the grant; the PI will will notify SPARC and will terminate the employees work on the grant.  
   
   

4. The Principal Investigator will obtain the signed Certification form from each employee (faculty, exempt, classified, or student) being paid on the grant. Prior to any charge being made against the grant for payment to the employee, the PI will forward the signed Certifications to the Sponsored Programs & Academic Research Center (SPARC).
   
   

5. SPARC will maintain the signed Certification forms on file with the official grant records.
   
   

6. SPARC will track employees working on NIH grants, the grant accounts paying those employees, and the most recent dates of employees’ signatures on the Employee Federal Debt Collection Certification forms.

[ EMPLOYEE FEDERAL DEBT COLLECTION CERTIFICATION FORM ]