NIH failed to monitor grant spending by foreign researcher recipients, inspector general reports

The National Institutes of Health systematically failed to track how foreign grant recipients spent their money, according to a report this month from an internal government watchdog.

The Health and Human Services Department’s inspector general found that NIH never obtained the overwhelming majority of required audit reports from foreign recipients it surveyed during fiscal years 2019 and 2020.

When the agency did get reports that needed monitoring, NIH officials failed to follow up 70% of the time.