Two senior Stanford University employees padded their paychecks with $124,000 in taxpayer funds given to the school as part of President Barack Obama’s stimulus program, according to a recent audit by the National Science Foundation (NSF).
“[W]e noted $124,279 of senior personnel salary charges that exceed the NSF two-month salary limit,” according to a report by the National Science Foundation’s inspector general. The IG’s report also documented “$44,508 for unreasonable and unallowable travel expenses; $84,197 in allocation of costs that were not adequately supported or appeared to be based on an arbitrary estimate; $72,375 for improperly charged or inadequately documented costs; and $12,018 for a cost transfer related to a potential cost overrun on another NSF award.”
Stanford University had a total research budget of $1.22 billion during 2015 and runs over 5,300 externally sponsored research projects. The NSF audit only included stimulus spending, which accounted for $211 million, or about 17 percent of the annual Stanford research budget. The audit also found that another $285,000 had been improperly spent. The federal government sponsors approximately 81 percent of Stanford’s research projects. Most of the misuse of funds occurred during the last half of 2012, when the NSF “verified expenditures without exception.”
“Our review of the accounting and reporting of NSF senior salary costs revealed that [Stanford University] does not adequately track/monitor senior personnel costs relative to the NSF two-month salary limit.” states the report.
In response to an early draft of the Inspector General’s report, Stanford University “disagreed with the finding and maintained that the expenses charged to the award are allowable and reasonable.”
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