Go here for background.
I
UT and CPRIT have different numbers for the amount of money the [state] agency has allocated to the University in grant funds [for cancer research], and neither institution was able to explain the discrepancy.
[A University of Texas spokesperson] said UT has been awarded $29.3 million by CPRIT so far, while the agency’s website states CPRIT has granted $38.4 million to UT since 2010. The page lists individual grants awarded by CPRIT.
CPRIT information specialist Ellen Read said financial employees at the agency do not know why there is a discrepancy, but that they believe the agency granted $37.9 million to UT-Austin, not $38.4 million.
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II
The recipient of the biggest grant given by the state’s cancer-fighting agency had spent $1.3 million — or one-sixth of its taxpayer money — on nonallowable costs such as bonuses, moving expenses and honorariums for board members before it ceased operations, Texas lawmakers were told Wednesday.
The Statewide Clinical Trials Network of Texas, or CTNeT, shut down last week after the state stopped advancing it money.
… Two of the [CPRIT’s] top executives, Bill Gimson and Alfred Gilman, who helped approve a $25 million grant to CTNeT, also served on CTNeT’s board.
… CPRIT had advanced the network $8.6 million of its total grant … [N]onallowable costs — cited as $301,000 in [an] audit – [have] grown to $1.3 million.
[M]ost of that increase was to pay CTNeT board members $9,000 apiece each quarter for attending board meetings. …Gimson and Gilman …were drawing $300,000 and $700,000 annual salaries from CPRIT…
… CTNet officials tried to “backdate” the paperwork to justify the honorarium.
Let’s see… Cancer or me? Cancer or me? … Me!
February 8th, 2013 at 9:31PM
“Roberts said most of that increase was to pay CTNeT board members $9,000 apiece each quarter for attending board meetings.”
That seems a little steep to me. I’m right here in Texas, and I’m willing to go to the meetings for only $8,999.
February 9th, 2013 at 12:38AM
JND: You’re only demanding $8,999 to attend meetings? Don’t sell yourself short! I think you should round things up – demand ten thousand. Per meeting. You’re a busy important person.
February 9th, 2013 at 1:00AM
My name for this is the new academic kleptocracy.