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The National Institutes of Health Generally Implemented the Safe Workplace Federal Reporting Requirement, but Opportunities Exist To Improve the Reporting and Monitoring Processes

Announced on  | Last Modified on  | Project Number: A-05-24-00002
Status
Completed
Agency
National Institutes of Health

OBJECTIVE

A general provision in the 2022 Consolidated Appropriations Act (P.L. 117-103) mandated the NIH Director to require NIH-funded institutions to report to the NIH “when individuals identified as principal investigator or as key personnel in an NIH notice of award are removed from their position or are otherwise disciplined due to concerns about harassment, bullying, retaliation, or hostile working conditions.” NIH expects recipient institutions to have policies and practices in place that foster an environment free from harassment, including sexual harassment, discrimination, and other forms of inappropriate conduct that can result in a hostile work environment. Our objectives will determine (1) whether NIH has implemented the Federal requirement for recipient institutions to report individuals who had been removed or disciplined due to concerns about harassment, bullying, retaliation, or hostile working conditions, and (2) how NIH has used the reported information to address work environments at recipient institutions.

TIMELINE

  • October 10, 2023
    Announced
  • December 10, 2025
    Complete

    The National Institutes of Health Generally Implemented the Safe Workplace Federal Reporting Requirement, but Opportunities Exist To Improve the Reporting and Monitoring Processes has been marked as complete. This audit resulted in 3 recommendations.

REPORT PUBLISHED

The National Institutes of Health Generally Implemented the Safe Workplace Federal Reporting Requirement, but Opportunities Exist To Improve the Reporting and Monitoring Processes (A-05-24-00002)
  • NIH has generally implemented the CAA reporting requirement. However, NIH did not take any actions to address the delayed institutional reporting in some sampled cases subject to the CAA reporting requirement. NIH did not have policies and procedures describing actions that should have been taken to address delayed reporting by the recipient institutions.
  • NIH used the reported information to address work environments at recipient institutions by taking PI, grant award, and recipient institution-specific actions in response to reported harassment or other inappropriate conduct cases. However, NIH did not have policies and procedures to facilitate consistent, timely, and proper actions in response to reported cases.

26-A-05-023.01 to NIH - Open Unimplemented
Update expected on 06/09/2026
We recommend that the National Institutes of Health educate recipient institutions on the importance of compliance with the CAA reporting requirement.

26-A-05-023.02 to NIH - Open Unimplemented
Update expected on 06/09/2026
We recommend that the National Institutes of Health develop policies and procedures for monitoring of recipient institutions' compliance with the CAA reporting requirement.

26-A-05-023.03 to NIH - Open Unimplemented
Update expected on 06/09/2026
We recommend that the National Institutes of Health develop policies and procedures to facilitate NIH's consistent, timely, and proper actions in response to reported harassment and other inappropriate conduct cases.

View in Recommendation Tracker
Work Plan Type
Office of Audit Services
HHS Agencies
National Institutes of Health
Issue Areas
Departmental Operational Issues Laboratories
Target Groups
Other Minorities
Financial Groups
Grants