NIH Threatened To Withdraw Grant Authority

Because of late and inaccurate grant reports, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) last month began to withdraw Harvard's authority to handle alterations to certain classes of grants, according to a memo recently sent to some faculty members.

But Allen Proctor, vice president for finance, said yesterday that the NIH withdrew its threat three days ago after he negotiated a plan to improve Harvard's performance.

"Expanded authority" over certain grants, which all other United States institutions hold, allows Harvard to rebudget items, pay for pre-award costs and other items such as travel at the University level, without having to receive permission from the sponsor in each instance.

"It would be a significant loss," said Diana Jaeger, an employee in the Grants Policy Office at NIH. "There are no other institutions where the NIH has withdrawn expanded authority."

In the November 15 memo to faculty, Ann Berman, acting associate dean for finance, and Richard Leahy, associate dean for research, wrote that the NIH "have begun to withdraw Harvard's eligibility to receive NIH awards with special granting authorities."

Now, however, the withdrawal seems to have halted.

"NIH is happy," Proctor said. "We have set very tough management goals and things went very well."

The NIH began monitoring 33 institutions with poor records two years ago, Jaeger said. For six months, the NIH checked whether the Financial Status Reports (FSRs) that the institutions submitted were accurate and on time.

Harvard's monitoring period was extended again when its performance did not improve, according to Jaeger.

"This has been going on for, almost two years," Jaeger said. "It is a long time. The intent was to provide an opportunity for those institutions with poor records to improve."

Only four of the 33 institutions including Harvard, have not improved their records, Jaeger said.

"This is the first time NIH has used this as a mechanism to try to work with the institution to have them comply," Jaeger said.

Slow Response

It is unclear why it took Harvard more than 18 months to respond to the NIH.

The Faculty of Arts and Science (FAS) "was not made aware that NIH had repeatedly warned Harvard about the problem over the last 18 months," Berman and Leahy's memo said.

Proctor is coordinating a response from FAS, Harvard Medical School and the School of Public Health.

He sent the Department of Health and Human Services a list of actions that Harvard is taking to "show that we are serious about eliminating the problems," according to the memo.

"I don't really know the whole story," Proctor said. "Fundamentally, they communicated two years ago and we sent back a response and heard nothing back from them for over a year and the first thing we heard was this letter, saying [they were withdrawing expanded authority]."

"It was an instance where they were getting increasingly concerned and we weren't mindful of it," Proctor said.

The actions which the University will take will include closing accounts which should have already been closed and filing future reports on a timely basis.

Professors said yesterday that Harvard's accounting office does not submit its financial reports on time.

"All the information I receive about my grant is always late and impenetrable and it doesn't surprise me at all that it may be inaccurate," said Higgins Professor of Biology Daniel Branton.

"That they are frequently inaccurate is perfectly evident to everyone on faculty and I have complained about it since I've been on the faculty."

Eric Shropshire, director of financial services for the Office for Sponsored Research, said that Proctor received a letter from the NIH on October 25 and had responded as quickly as he could.

"We had 74 percent of our reports on time and they wanted 90 percent," Shropshire said. "Basically, we are putting into place a status report management and a reporting plan. We will hire two additional staff to address the workload and will give NIH top priority."

Proctor said that regular meetings, one of which was held yesterday, will be held to determine which professor's grants are late

He sent the Department of Health and Human Services a list of actions that Harvard is taking to "show that we are serious about eliminating the problems," according to the memo.

"I don't really know the whole story," Proctor said. "Fundamentally, they communicated two years ago and we sent back a response and heard nothing back from them for over a year and the first thing we heard was this letter, saying [they were withdrawing expanded authority]."

"It was an instance where they were getting increasingly concerned and we weren't mindful of it," Proctor said.

The actions which the University will take will include closing accounts which should have already been closed and filing future reports on a timely basis.

Professors said yesterday that Harvard's accounting office does not submit its financial reports on time.

"All the information I receive about my grant is always late and impenetrable and it doesn't surprise me at all that it may be inaccurate," said Higgins Professor of Biology Daniel Branton.

"That they are frequently inaccurate is perfectly evident to everyone on faculty and I have complained about it since I've been on the faculty."

Eric Shropshire, director of financial services for the Office for Sponsored Research, said that Proctor received a letter from the NIH on October 25 and had responded as quickly as he could.

"We had 74 percent of our reports on time and they wanted 90 percent," Shropshire said. "Basically, we are putting into place a status report management and a reporting plan. We will hire two additional staff to address the workload and will give NIH top priority."

Proctor said that regular meetings, one of which was held yesterday, will be held to determine which professor's grants are late