Cleveland Clinic paying $7M+ to settle deceptive funding case
A Cleveland Clinic researcher accepted NIH funding without telling the agency about money coming in for the same project from one or more foreign backers. For this the nonprofit Cleveland Clinic Foundation will pay $7.6 million.
That’s the amount on which the foundation agreed with U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Ohio.
According to a settlement agreement posted May 17, Cleveland Clinic Foundation (CCF) had named the researcher as principal investigator on three separate NIH grant submissions. In one or all of these submissions, the researcher and his or her team:
- Skirted the NIH’s requirement to disclose other sources of support when requesting funding through NIH’s eRA Commons system.
- Directed or allowed the sharing of eRA Commons passwords, another NIH policy violation. The attorney’s office says “at least some of” the false submissions failing to disclose the principal investigator’s other support “were made by other CCF employees using the principal investigator’s username and password.”
- Falsely certified the truth and accuracy of statements declaring the research team’s NIH submissions to be the only grant requests the team had made for the research project at hand.
In a news release, regional U.S. Attorney Rebecca Lutzko states that, as stewards of taxpayer dollars, her office “takes seriously its responsibility of ensuring that grant recipients fully and accurately report all required information to NIH so that it may properly award its limited funds to deserving institutions.”
“Today’s settlement illustrates the importance of being truthful at every stage of the grants process,” Lutzko adds.
NIH has imposed other conditions on Cleveland Clinic Foundation as part of the settlement. These include requiring a “high-level CCF employee” to personally attest to the truth, completeness and accuracy of all other grant support information CCF provides to NIH for a one-year period beginning Oct. 1.
The foundation must also develop corrective and improvement action plans with specific to-do items while creating a mandatory training program covering disclosures mandated for NIH grant submissions.
HHS’s special agent in charge of the case, Mario Pinto, says the accuracy of information reported in applications and other documentation related to federal grants is “critical to ensuring that these limited funds are utilized in the most efficient and effective manner, and that the integrity of the application process is upheld.” More:
‘Our agency is committed to ensuring that those who submit false statements in grant applications are identified and investigated in cooperation with our federal law enforcement partners.’
Settlement agreement here, news release here.
Dave P. has worked in journalism, marketing and public relations for more than 30 years, frequently concentrating on hospitals, healthcare technology and Catholic communications. He has also specialized in fundraising communications, ghostwriting for CEOs of local, national and global charities, nonprofits and foundations.