BLATANT fraud is continuing to rob NASA of funds 17 years after such scams were first uncovered, according to its Office of Inspector General (OIG) in Washington DC.
, acting assistant inspector general Debra Pettitt outlined the ways in which firms awarded grants by the space agency under the have hoodwinked NASA.
It鈥檚 not too difficult. About 2.5 per cent of the budgets of 14 of the US鈥檚 major government departments 鈥� like defence and agriculture 鈥� are set aside to fund research under the SBIR scheme. Because many departments offer such funds, some fraudsters have been 鈥渞eceiving awards from multiple agencies for essentially the same work鈥�, says Pettitt.
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鈥淔raudsters have been receiving awards from multiple agencies for the same work鈥�
Some wrote grant applications slightly differently 鈥� yet delivered the same technology to multiple departments. Other firms boasted of employing high-profile principal investigators who turned out not to work for them at all. Such abuses were first uncovered by the OIG in 1992.
Since 2001, it has found 8 cases of such fraud, and some companies have been fined millions of dollars. 鈥淲e don鈥檛 know the full extent of this right now so we are initiating a new audit,鈥� says Raymond Tolomeo, research director at the OIG. 鈥淭hen we鈥檒l be able to see if NASA鈥檚 internal processes are working.鈥�
