Special contributions to the LHC project are received as part of an International Co-operation agreement with a country. More precisely, they are received in the context of an addendum to a protocol, established through an International Co-operation agreement with CERN.
For instance, the international agreement concerning the development of scientific and technical co-operation in high energy physics between the Government of the Russian Federation and CERN , ICA-RU-0001 was signed in October 1993.
A protocol to this international co-operation agreement concerning participation to the LHC was signed in June 1996, P001/LHC.
Finally, an addendum to this protocol, the 8th, which defines the collaboration between CERN and the Budker Institute of Nuclear Physics, for the Support Jacks for LHC magnets, P001/LHC/A8, was signed in January 2000.
So far, Special Contributions (i.e. contributions made in kind or through contracts from non CERN member states) were not accounted for in PPT.
Some special contributions have been included in PPT, but since they could not be given a budget code, their format needs to be adjusted.
This document explains how Special Contributions, both past and future, are to be managed in PPT.
We will first see how special contributions are generally handled in PPT. Then, we will consider how past contributions will be imported into PPT, and how future contributions should be registered so they are easily identified.
Finally, we will go through a summary of the significance of Special Contributions in terms of Planned Value, Earned Value and Actual Costs.
Since special contributions do not flow through CERN budget codes, we cannot attach them to a given CERN Organic Unit. As a result, special contributions cannot currently be shown in the Cost To Completion summary tables.
In order to solve this problem, PPT will introduce Virtual Budget Codes that can be assigned to Special Contribution Resource Assignments. These virtual budget codes will not be usable in any other tools than PPT.
Also, to follow exactly how special contributions are employed in the construction of the LHC, guidelines on how to register Special Contributions have been decided upon.
There are two types of Virtual Budget Codes.
Organic Unit : In some cases, the special contribution does not transit through CERN, it is given to an Organic Unit as a supplies contract (e.g. Protocol P005 with contract F260) or as consultancy or external manpower (e.g. Protocol P002/E2 with contract K626), or simply as money.
In this case, the virtual budget code will be identical to the one used with a normal contract or budgetted amount, but will be suffixed with SC - denoting a Special Contribution.
For instance, the Protocol P001/A18-02 plans a 2002 contribution of 3,972 CHF to be used by the AT-VAC group, project code GCH14T32. This would correspond to the budget code 96647. The Virtual Budget Code in this case would be 96647SC
Team Code : In some cases, the special contribution is paid on a team account, and used within a Group, System or PPA. In this case, the virtual budget code is a mix of standard CERN budget code and team code.
For instance, the Protocol P001/D2 plans a contribution of 755,124 CHF between 1998 and 2002 to the Team Account T841400, in the context of its work for the EST-SU Organic Unit and GCH16G11 project code. The standard budget code for such a case would be 92820, while the team code is T841400. The Virtual Budget Code in this case would be 92820T8414. [Note that the last two zeroes of the Team Code have been removed].
To summarise the use of Virtual Budget Codes :
To easily identify Special Contributions in PPT, a format convention is needed. This convention has been inspired by the data that already exists in PPT.
The general rules for handling Special Contributions are :
The following sections provide concrete examples of special contributions in PPT :
Special Contributions received from CERN member states have been eventually integrated into CERN Budget. Past contributions will be inspected individually and loaded into PPT if needed. Future contributions will transit through regular CERN budget.
Special contributions of this type must be accounted for, in PPT, with a resource assignment line of type M3. In order to represent the fact that the money comes from budget code T831100 and is allocated to AT-CRI, for PPA FHC-00 and SYSTEM GCH11M411 , we will use a virtual budget code 90928T8311.
Note that this virtual budget code is made up of the equivalent CERN budget code and the first 5 digits of the Team code (the last two digits are always 0s and non significant). This allows PPT to store virtual budget codes in 10 characters, the size limit of standard CERN budget codes.
| wu | 18705 | F | DR | Supply jacks batch #7 | LHC.2.2 | BRICE.COPY@CERN.CH | ||
| M2 | 18705 | 1 | P002/F2, PF1000426 Protocol with India / CERN funding | 90928 | 437,500 | 437,500 | CHF | |
| M3 | 18705 | 2 | P002/F2 Protocol with India / Indian funding | 90928T8311 | 437,500 | 437,500 | CHF |
Note that the CERN counter part is represented by a resource assignment of type M2 and the normal budget code.
On both lines, the description of the resource assignment starts with the reference of the addendum to the protocol. In this case P002/F2. This is similar to M1 resource assignment lines which start with a reference to a contract. Note that the CERN counterpart of the special contributions is planned in the future and committed in the accounts. Exactly as for F contracts, this is done using orders of type PF (FF are for F contracts). Whenever known, the reference of the PF order must appear in the M2 line as described above.
| wu | 6769 | F | PL | Supply F307 Austenitic Steel Strips | LHC.2.2 | BRICE.COPY@CERN.CH | ||
| M1 | 6769 | 3 | F307 | 90134 | 237,991 | 237,991 | CHF | |
| M1 | 6769 | 7 | F307 | 90134T8212 | 1,230,037 | 1,230,037 | CHF |
In the example quoted above for this type of special contributions, we will use another virtual budget code: 90200SC which will allow the 130,000 CHF to be traced back to AT-MEL, SYSTEM GCH11M213 and PPA FHC-000 .
| wu | 6769 | PL | Cryogenic feed boxes | LHC.5.10 | BRICE.COPY@CERN.CH | |||
| M3 | 6769 | 3 | P005 | 90200SC | 130,000 | 130,000 | CHF |
A tool to import Special Contributions as registered by the Financial Planning Office into PPT has been created. Some protocols (P001 with Russia, P002 with India, P009 with Canada) have already been included in PPT, sometimes with diverging formats or incorrect budget codes, sometimes with missing references.
If you have already included Special Contributions in PPT, it will be necessary to make them comply to the above guidelines. The PPT maintenance mode will be extended to allow you to upload your information.
In the future, all references to Special Contributions in PPT must follow the format explained in Section "Special Contributions in PPT" . Following those guidelines will allow an easier maintenance of Resource Assignments and provide more accurate information in the EVM Summaries screens.
If unavailable, Virtual Budget Codes will be created on demand by the AC-DI-BP section as needed in PPT. For instance, if a special contribution must be assigned to the AT-VAC group, for project code GCH14T32 and PPA code FHC-000 - where the budget code 96647 would be used, you will need to request the creation of 96647SC in PPT, if it was not available.
Note that this budget code will only be valid in PPT, as it would not mean anything in CET or Qualiac for instance.
Both Planned and Earned Value are calculated as for Standard Workunits.
Actual costs is determined in two different ways, depending on whether the Special Contribution was assigned on a virtual budget code to a Team Account or an Organic Unit :