Conference Planning and Required Approvals (Aug 2013)

(a) Definitions. Conference means a seminar, meeting, retreat, symposium, workshop, training activity or other such event that requires temporary duty travel of USAID employees. For the purpose of this policy, an employee is defined as a U.S. direct hire; personal services contractor, including U.S. PSCs, Foreign Service National (FSN)/Cooperating Country National (CCN) and Third Country National (TCN); or a Federal employee detailed to USAID from another government agency.

(b) The contractor must obtain approval from the contracting officer or the contracting officer's representative (COR), if delegated in the Contracting Officer's Representative Designation Letter, as prescribed in 731.205-43, prior to committing costs related to conferences funded in whole or in part with USAID funds when:

(1) Twenty (20) or more USAID employees are expected to attend.

(2) The net conference expense funded by USAID will exceed $100,000 (excluding salary of employees), regardless of the number of USAID participants.

(c) Conferences approved at the time of award will be incorporated into the award. Any subsequent requests for approval of conferences must be submitted by the contractor to the USAID contracting officer representative (COR). The contracting officer representative will obtain the required agency approvals and communicate such approvals to the contractor in writing.

(d) The request for conference approval must include:

(1) A brief summary of the proposed event;

(2) A justification for the conference and alternatives considered, e.g., teleconferencing and videoconferencing;

(3) The estimated budget by line item (e.g., travel and per diem, venue, facilitators, meals, equipment, printing, access fees, ground transportation);

(4) A list of USAID employees attending and a justification for each; and the number of other USAID-funded participants (e.g., institutional contractors);

(5) The venues considered (including government-owned facility), cost comparison, and justification for venue selected if it is not the lowest cost option;

(6) If meals will be provided to local employees (a local employee would not be in travel status), a determination that the meals are a necessary expense for achieving Agency objectives; and

(7) A certification that strict fiscal responsibility has been exercised in making decisions regarding conference expenditures, the proposed costs are comprehensive and represent the greatest cost advantage to the U.S. Government, and that the proposed conference representation has been limited to the minimum number of attendees necessary to support the Agency's mission.