How do I report fraud and abuse in a grant funded by the Department of Health and Human Services?

To insure that grant funds are spent as intended, Department employees, grantees, and members of the general public should report any irregularities, such as

Furnishing false credentials in grant applications;

Providing inducements to influence the grant decision;

Failure to perform the work specified in the grant award;

Failure to establish necessary fiscal controls on grant money;

Reporting false results on the work specified in the grant award;

Theft of grant money, or of property purchased with grant money;

Using grant money for any purpose other than that specified in the grant award.

Depending on the severity of the malfeasance involved and the depth of your personal knowledge of the facts, you may want to report the infraction to the grants officer for the particular grant.  This individual is usually identified as the contact person in any official announcements regarding the grant.  You should pursue this option to report infractions that are primarily technical in nature, or to clarify provisions of a grant.  Similarly, you may want to contact the Department agency that awarded the grant.  For example, if the grant was issued by the Administration for Children and Families, you many want to contact the Office of Financial Services.

If, however, you do not know how to contact the grant officer, or you suspect that the official administering the grant to be involved in the fraud, or you suspect that the infractions involve serious criminal activity, you can report the fraud directly to the Office of Inspector General [link to “How can I report fraud, waste and abuse?”

http://answers.hhs.gov/cgi-bin/hhs.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=738]