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Friday, December 12, 2014

UC Davis settles Federal double dipping allegations - pays $500,000 in refund to the Department of Energy

For the next three years, UC Davis will supplement its current research training with an hour-long module covering time and effort reporting and reasonableness of costs under federal grants.

The University will also be paying $499,700 to resolve civil allegations under the False Claims Act, according to a statement released by U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District Benjamin B. Wagner.



UCD spokesperson Andy Fell told the Sacramento Bee that "the university acknowledges no liability and admits to no wrongdoing."

In the Department of Justice press release, National Science Foundation Inspector General Allison Lerner stated: “This settlement agreement sends a strong signal that failure to disclose duplicative funding will not be tolerated.”

The case involved allegations that the same research activities were used to justify payments from three different grant awards.  Claims were made on DOE and NSF funds for the same work, when some of the activity had already been invoiced to another federal grant.

The San Jose Mercury News called it a case of "double dipping."

DOE funds are also at issue in reports of apparent double dipping in the CSU Sacramento Smart Grid Center (Abuse of public funds at CSU Sacramento?).

According to the Bee, the UCD allegations date back to a period between 2006 and 2009.

Highlighting the long arm of the law, DOE Inspector General Gregory H. Friedman said in the release: "our Special Agents will tirelessly investigate any allegations of abuse that affect the integrity of the grant underwriting process."

US Attorney Wagner said in his statement: “This settlement sends a clear message that recipients of federally funded grants must strictly adhere to the regulations ... recipients who fail to do so risk significant financial consequences.