DECEMBER 14, 2023. The Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and Georgia Tech Research Corporation (GTRC) will pay $90,000 to settle claims that they failed to provide sufficient oversight of their federal grants, causing them to miss submissions of false claims to the National Science Foundation, violating the False Claims Act.
The allegations are centered around a National Science Foundation Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (IUCRC) grant. The IUCRC program “fosters pre-competitive research through multi-member collaborations among industry, academic, and government partners.” The specific award at issue was given to a Georgia Tech and GTRC initiative called the Center for Health Organization Transformation. The government claimed that from April 2014 to March 2019, Georgia Tech and GTRC did not properly oversee the grant program, which led to the submission of false claims to the National Science Foundation regarding the number of industry members involved in the Center initiative. It also failed to catch errors regarding the amount of membership fees paid or received in connection with the grant.
Regarding the case, a U.S. attorney said, “Federal grants and awards come with known ‘rules of the road … Organizations that receive federal funds—especially schools and universities that are pillars of our community—must take steps to ensure that their employees are following the rules. This settlement represents our office’s commitment to ensuring accountability for institutions that fail to live up to these obligations.”
In addition to the $90,000 settlement, Georgia Tech has returned $105,000 to the National Science Foundation, and both Georgia Tech and GTRC have agreed to implement proper safeguards against fraud, specifically targeting employees that handle IUCRC grants. There was no whistleblower in this case, but whistleblowers reporting grant fraud through a qui tam lawsuit can earn 15-25% of the government’s recovery if their False Claims Act case is successful.
If you would like to report government grants fraud, you can contact attorneys at Tycko & Zavareei LLP. Eva Gunasekera and Renée Brooker are former officials of the United States Department of Justice and prosecuted whistleblower cases under the False Claims Act. Renée served as Assistant Director at the United States Department of Justice, the office that supervises False Claims Act cases in all 94 United States District Courts. Eva was the Senior Counsel for Health Care Fraud. Eva and Renée now represent whistleblowers. For a free consultation, you can contact Renée at [email protected] (tel.: 202-417-3664) or contact Eva Gunasekera at [email protected]. You can also go to Tycko & Zavareei LLP’s website for whistleblowers to learn more at www.fraudfighters.net/.