I must say, psychiatry departments at American universities look almost as troubled as campus athletic departments. Both places often seem epicenters of greed, stupidity, and criminality.
Call UD old-fashioned, but she doesn’t immediately associate that set of values with universities as we’ve come to know them.
Federal prosecutors have filed conflict of interest charges against a VA hospital psychiatrist, alleging that he supervised contracts in which he had a financial interest.
Dr. William Weeks of Lyme, N.H., is accused of misconduct in five contracts between the White River Junction VA hospital and Dartmouth College. He acted as both a VA representative responsible for approving payments to Dartmouth and as Dartmouth’s principal investigator performing work on the contracts, prosecutors say.
If convicted of the misdemeanor charges, he faces a year in prison and fines of up to $100,000 for each charge. He also faces up to $1.3 million in penalties in an 11-count civil complaint.
In court papers filed Friday, Acting U.S. Attorney Paul Van de Graaf said Weeks sought $1.1 million in contracts from the VA for Dartmouth, and then did the work for significantly less by hiring fewer people and at lower rates. An estimated $567,000 was left over and deposited into an account at Dartmouth in Weeks’ name.
Weeks also is accused of participating in other contracts with the VA and Dartmouth while holding the dual positions…
June 2nd, 2009 at 9:15PM
I don’t know the details of this case, but I would like to give a different viewpoint. I have had a modest share of research grants during my time in academic medical science. Earlier in my career there was what I considered a reasonable interpretation of the degree to which an investigator had to do exactly what was specified in the grant. Research is supposed to involve a lot of free, speculative thought and it is virtually impossible to micromanage and predict the eventual costs and opportunities. Twenty years ago, if I had some money in grant left over to buy rats but no equipment money to buy needed equipment in grant A and equipment money but no rat money (to buy needed rats) in grant B, it was just the easiest thing (and no big deal at all) to buy the rats with grant A and equipment with grand B and use them appropriately where they could be useful to finish the research in both grants. Now I supposed I would be charged with a crime for doing so. Yet I think that the "old way" was far superior and allowed us to make more progress with fewer dollars. Likewise, it would be the same thing if I traded $25,000 animal care money from my grant (which I no longer needed for animals) for $25,000 of supply money that my fellow scientist down the hall had but no longer needed for supplies. This was done all the time to great benefit. There actually are some ways of officially reallocating but they have become so cumbersome now that they often are prohibitive.
I do not think that anyone is implying that Weeks put the money into his pocket. I think he simply found a more efficient way of doing the job and then he put what was left over into a different research account. Both the VA and private academic institutions benefit from being able to sponsor research at two different nearby institutions. I suspect that many of the so-called criminal cases are simply systems issues in which the rules are drawn too tightly and, thus, they prohibit innovative approaches to research and discourage cost savings.
Again, I don’t know the facts and maybe he was putting money into his own pocket. But I think there is a good chance that he merely was using the money well for purposes that fell within the aims of the grant or grants and he is being clobbered for doing too good a job of savings costs. A better system would encourage and applaud such behavior.
June 3rd, 2009 at 9:02AM
I take your point, Sigmund, and it’s a good one. But the old ways relied on trust, and when trust begins to fail…
June 14th, 2009 at 12:21PM
Dr. Weeks did not benefit financially from the grant. Even prosecutors state that he did not personally benefit. I agree with sigmund regarding the use of grant money. But you and your readers need to look further than the current publicity. Dr. Weeks has conducted research and published articles that are critical of the VA. Similar public flogging of other researchers and officials have occured. I’m surprised that people let the government manipulate them to do their dirty work.