A 6-month federal investigation has determined that a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) official acted unreasonably last year when she arbitrarily disapproved 15 research proposals that the VA had already approved and that were within 1 month of receiving their funding.

Nelda Wray, the Veterans Health Administration's former chief research and development officer, also improperly spent nearly $1.7 million in VA-controlled funds provided primarily by pharmaceutical companies and unnecessarily charged $9737 for weekend travel to her home in Houston, expensive lodging, and expensive ground transportation, according to the report, which was released to Congress and federal health officials on March 22.

In addition, the report by the VA's Office of Inspector General (OIG) determined that Wray unfairly hired and promoted four VA employees and that she violated ethical standards by awarding four grants to a Houston colleague who was not a VA researcher. It recommended that VA discipline her and issue “bills of collections” to her and to subordinates who helped her misspend the money.

On March 23, Congressman Steve Buyer (R-Ind.), chair of the House Veterans Affairs Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, said, “It is my hope that the Secretary [of Veterans Affairs] will take the appropriate and expeditious administrative actions regarding the multiple sustained allegations of fraud, waste, and abuse uncovered in their extensive investigation.” His subcommittee requested the investigation last September after researchers and their professional organizations sent it a blizzard of faxes and letters for several months.

Before she left her job last December to attend to what she termed “a pressing family health concern,” Wray had been in charge of VA's $1.4 billion annual biomedical research budget. The report says she is still a VA employee. Wray could not be located for comment.

In her 1 year on the job, Wray caused a firestorm of academic criticism. She decided to disapprove the 15 research proposals in April after she reprioritized 130 funding-approved proposals using an ad hoc “productivity” score she devised, which measured publications in prominent journals, other federal grants, and academic rank.

Researchers saw the scoring as an intrusion into the peer review system. They argued that scientists in the same field were the best people to determine how important each published paper really was.

The report says that the Department of Justice decided on March 15 that it would not prosecute Wray. However, departmental public relations staffers said yesterday that they were not aware of any such decision.

Unaware of the purported Justice decision, Jill Greenberg, press secretary for Senator Bob Graham (D-Fla.), the ranking member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said yesterday, “It's clear from the report that there are criminal elements, there's something criminal about what Nelda Wray has done, and we're hopeful the proper authorities will deal with that situation.”

In an interview with The Scientist yesterday, Buyer said, “I would say that [the subcommittee is] disappointed that Justice didn't take it, that we would hope that the Department [of Veterans Affairs] would take expeditious and appropriate administrative actions.”

Len Sistek, minority-side staff director for the subcommittee, said that Rep. Lane Evans (D-Ill.), ranking member of the parent veterans affairs committee, wrote to Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony Principi yesterday, asking him to keep Evans “apprised of the department's timely administrative actions in this regard.”

If the subcommittee does not agree with whatever actions the VA takes, Sistek said, “we'll request a hearing or take other action.” “At the end of the day, Dr. Wray may have to replace a great portion of the funds that were used or wasted,” Sistek said.

Rep. Darlene Hooley (D-Ore.), ranking member of the subcommittee, said yesterday, “The short-notice withdrawal of anticipated research funds and the shift to outcome based research was short-sighted and threatened the success of the VA's research program. I hope we can now put this issue behind us and return to successful basic science research at the VA.”

“Our issues with her are over because she's gone,” said Joe Carey, spokesperson for the Society for Neuroscience.