Penn Agrees to Return $1M After Audit

In the wake of a federal audit of research spending at 14 schools, the University of Pennsylvania has agreed to pay back taxpayers $1 million in misused funds.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) found that Pennsylvania had violated federal grant regulations by spending monies tagged for research overhead on alumni activities, art maintenance and the Chaplain's account, according to a statement from the university.

By reaching an agreement with the government, the University of Pennsylvania concluded its part in the HHS audit.

"It was a simple oversight. [The costs] shouldn't have been put under there," said Johanna Vogel, a spokesperson for the school.

In their recently-concluded probe of 14 schools, HHS auditors focused on the spending of federal funds that were targeted for overhead costs on research, or indirect costs.

HHS ordered the audit last spring after allegations in Congress that Stanford overbilled the government $200 million. Harvard Medical School is the target of a related probe by the U.S. General Accounting Office.

HHS is in the process of compiling a report of the complete results of the audit, according to William J. Hornby, deputy inspector general for audit services in Boston.

"It's a one-shot thing to put together a consolidated report that will show some of the common and individual problems at the universities," Hornby said yesterday.

The audit included Dartmouth College, Yale University and other public and private universities. Many of the universities have not yet resolved their cases with the government.

The audit found Dartmouth to be in complete compliance with federal regulations, according to Alex S. Huppe, spokesperson for Dartmouth College.

"The thousand some hours of federal audit time showed that Dartmouth did not violate any regulations," Huppe said.