The United States government announced today that it reached a major settlement agreement with Northeastern University resolving allegations that, over a nine-year period, the university failed to properly account for federal research funds it received from the National Science Foundation (NSF).
NSF awarded the funds to support high-energy research in particle physics led by Stephen Reucroft, former Northeastern professor of physics, at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva, Switzerland.
Under the settlement agreement, Northeastern University agreed to pay $2.7 million and enter into a five-year compliance agreement to ensure there are proper oversight and safeguards for future research awards.
“Universities that receive federal research funds have a duty to ensure that their researchers use those funds only for their intended purposes,” U.S. Attorney Carmen M. Ortiz said in a statement. “In this matter, Northeastern failed to adequately safeguard National Science Foundation grant money that was awarded for the sole purpose of supporting important scientific research.”
The US government alleged that from 2001 to 2010, Northeastern University violated several regulatory requirements for federal government grants, including overseeing the NSF funds they receive and documenting all payments for things like salaries and travel expenses. They believed that the school authorized and disbursed numerous advances and other payments of NSF award funds to accounts controlled by Professor Reucroft at CERN without proper justification or verification.
The US government said Northeastern also failed, for more than two years, to notify the NSF when it discovered significant problems with the accounting of disbursed funds and knew that at least some of the funds were being used to pay Professor Reucroft's personal expenses.
Want to know the full terms of the deal? Follow along this link.
