New Info on CIRM's Grant Management Problems

More details are now available on the latest attempt to solve major problems in the efforts to monitor $760 million in grants from the California stem cell agency.

The subject comes up at a teleconference meeting tomorrow morning of the Governance Committee of the agency's board of directors.

We wrote last week about the issue, which has troubled CIRM since 2006. The agency has not publicly disclosed the full nature of the difficulties, but discussed part of the problem briefly in a recent item on its Web site.

The latest posting shows that CIRM staff is seeking the directors' approval of a $350,000 contract with Kutir Corp., up $150,000 from $200,000 authorized for Nov. 20, 2008, to Nov. 20, 2009.

The staff memo says Kutir was brought aboard when Ed Dorrington resigned from CIRM in December 2008 as its director of grants managements systems. The staff memo says,

“When he departed there was no one on staff capable of taking over his responsibilities. Kutir now supplies those services, which include creating an application for each new RFA along with a matching review module. The review module takes data that are sorted and transferred from the application and uses this information to manage the Grants Working Group process, including conflicts of interest.”

The memo continues,

“Kutir now supplies (Dorrington's) services, which include creating an application for each new RFA along with a matching review module. The review module takes data that are sorted and transferred from the application and uses this information to manage the Grants Working Group process, including conflicts of interest. These tasks require progressively more time and effort for each RFA as CIRM has evolved and added new complexities to its programs, including collaborative funding partners, pre-application review and loans.

“In addition, CIRM is in the process of assessing and installing new grants management systems in order to meet its growing reporting and portfolio requirements. The IT developers from Kutir are assisting with this project by advising on how best to integrate CIRM’s existing custom-built software with the commercial products being purchased.”

Tomorrow's meeting begins at 11 a.m. And can be heard at teleconference locations in San Francisco (2), Los Angeles(2), La Jolla, Stanford and Irvine. Specific locations can be found on the agenda.