New financial controls enacted

Ohio State has implemented new controls on cash reserves and restrictions on procurement spending -- as well as a temporary hiring pause -- as financially prudent steps in response to the coronavirus outbreak (COVID-19).

These actions will allow the university to assess the operational and budgetary impacts of our coronavirus response. 

All university leaders are being asked to control discretionary spending, including procurement activity, in case the COVID-19 effects are with us for an extended period of time. Every area of the university should make all attempts to retain as much of its current (FY2020) budget as possible.

The university is implementing several steps to aid with this process:

• Each senior fiscal officer will become the level 2 approver for procurement activity in his or her college/unit to ensure proposed purchases are strictly necessary.
• In addition, any spending (including planned spending) of current cash reserves must be approved by either the provost (for all academic units), the chancellor (for the Wexner Medical Center) or the university's chief financial officer (for all support units excluding the Office of Academic Affairs).

For information on the hiring pause, see the Office of Human Resources coronavirus webpage.