Dive Brief:
- Columbia University will pay more than $9 million for knowingly submitting claims for federal AIDS research funding for work not done.
- The federal court settlement was reached on Tuesday, The Capital reported.
- Columbia received the money to pay for the work of nearly 200 people at the International Center for AIDS Care and Treatment Programs, now under Columbia’s Mailman School of Public Health.
Dive Insight:
As part of the settlement agreement, Columbia admitted to wrongdoing. The university had been awarded $125 million in 2004 as part of the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, followed by more than 75 other grants for AIDS- and HIV-related work. Although the grant required Columbia and the Center for AIDS Care to track the employees’ work and charge the grants for that work, the employees mostly didn’t know which tasks went with which grants. Instead, Columbia’s finance department provided the necessary information, which was certified as correct without verification.