University of Nevada, Las Vegas Agreed to Pay $1.4 Million for Allegedly Violating the Civil Monetary Penalties Law by Submitting Improper Claims to NIH and HRSA Grants

After it self-disclosed conduct to OIG, the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education, on behalf of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), Nevada, agreed to pay $1,450,947.81 for allegedly violating the Civil Monetary Penalties Law. OIG alleged that a former employee of UNLV and Principal Investigator (PI), submitted improper claims to several National Institute of Health (NIH) awards and a Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) award. OIG alleged that UNLV made subaward payments under NIH awards that were unallowable either because they were made to organizations without sufficient documentation of whether the activities were for the performance of the awards, or because they were made to entities with which the PI had an undisclosed conflict of interest. OIG further alleged that the NIH awards were improperly charged for the salary and fringe benefits of the PI without adequate documentation, and for the travel and associated costs of at least two trips to Nigeria that were unallowable because there was no evidence that the trip was in furtherance of the NIH-funded research. Finally, OIG alleged that UNLV improperly charged a portion of the salary of a nurse practitioner working in UNLV’s HIV clinic to a HRSA award when UNLV lacked sufficient documentation to support such salary costs charged to the award.

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