Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa today made the following comment on the importance of federal agency oversight of research dollars in light of the former Iowa State University researcher in the news today over an indictment.
“I started looking at the government’s response to federal research money lost to fraud after the Iowa State case. It was alarming to see weak oversight. The federal agencies that award these dollars haven’t been doing much to recover money lost to fraud in these cases or to hold anyone accountable. It’s encouraging to see an effort to increase oversight of taxpayer dollars. There should be more of this whenever federal research dollars are misspent, not just in a high profile case.”
A response from the National Institutes of Health to Grassley saying Iowa State University must repay $496,832.17 as part of its research grant is available here. A story from the Des Moines Register on the case is available here.
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