Dear colleagues, 

The National Research Foundation (NRF) bases the future allocation of funding on the results of audited financial reports of the current period. To avoid forfeiture of future grants, the University must submit these reports on or before the deadlines set by the NRF. In order for the University to meet the reporting deadline for the 2022 financial year, please take note of the following reporting guidelines and milestones:

 1.  Financial reporting 

Only actual and valid expenditure that was paid in 2022 can be claimed and reported.  Commitments and encumbrances (outstanding orders) may not be included in the financial report. Including amounts not yet paid will result in forfeiture of the funding. Should grant-holders have outstanding orders or claims, carry-forwards may be applied for (refer to section 1.4 below). 

1.1 Purchase Orders

 All requisitions/purchase orders must be placed by no later than 1 November 2022. No requisitions for NRF cost centres will be allowed after this date.

1.2 Invoice Payments

 All 2022 invoices must be linked to 2022 purchase orders. Grant-holders are requested to submit all documents that relate to official orders and purchases, to the Accounts Payable Division by 3 December 2022. Invoices with invoice dates between 3 December and 31 December 2022 must be submitted on or before 6 January 2023.

It is the responsibility of the grant-holder to ensure that all invoices are submitted, and that all vouchers are approved on time by the cost centre manager.

1.3 Advances

 Advance settlement reports relating to NRF grants and cost centres must be submitted on or before 3 December 2022. Please ensure that all supporting documents are attached to the report, and that original documents are sent to your relevant faculty accountant by that date. These reports must be finalised in terms of the relevant policy (A09/10).

1.4 Unspent funds (Carry Forward – (CF))

Per the NRF financial reporting guidelines, the NRF does not allow automatic transfer of unspent grant balances to the following year; therefore, not all unspent funds can be rolled over to the following funding year. The NRF uses clear and transparent criteria to decide which funds can or cannot be carried forward. When submitting the online request of unspent balances (Carry-Forward (CF)) for 2022 in respect of outstanding commitments (e.g. purchase orders), please ensure that you upload supporting  documentation for such requests. Only committed and unpaid expenses for CF at the end of a multi-year grant, or final year of funding of a grant, are considered. 

It is the responsibility of the grant-holder to submit a motivation together with the Annual Progress report (refer to 2. below) to the NRF and to obtain the above mentioned written approval.  Excluded from the CF process are grants under the Incentive and Evaluation and Monitoring programme.

Please be advised that, where payment has not been processed for any outstanding orders by 6 January 2023, alternative sources of funding of the grant-holder must be provided to facilitate payment.

2. Annual Progress Report (APR)

 The APR for the 2022 financial year must be submitted online, on the NRF system, which will open mid-November, and must be completed by no later than 10 February 2023. Should the NRF not receive these reports on time, then the University’s NRF funding will be negatively impacted in the 2023 financial year. 

Please note that should you have multiple grants, an APR for each of your awards must be submitted. Furthermore, should the grant-holder not fulfil this requirement, i.e. submit only one (1) APR for grant-holders with multiple grants, this will affect the release of your 2023 awards of all your grants and consequentially, all your projects will be placed on hold.

3. External Audit

 Per the NRF financial reporting guidelines, an external audit of all NRF awards is mandatory. The external audit commences on 13 February 2023, which will provide assurance that the grants and scholarships were used in accordance with the conditions of all grants and the financial policy of the University.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation in making the 2022 NRF submissions a success.

Kind regards,

Mr MN Moolla

Director: Finance