Amid efforts by the Trump administration to “put an end to fraudulent and wasteful spending” and “enhance” accountability, two key offices charged with investigating fraud and holding scientists and institutions accountable for federal spending have seen top leadership depart.
Retraction Watch has learned that most — if not all — research investigators at the National Science Foundation’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) will be leaving their jobs.
Some of the departures, at the OIG and the Office of Research Integrity (ORI), are voluntary, while others were part of the mass government firings carried out earlier this month.
They leave concerning reductions in personnel at both offices, which serve an integral role when it comes to ensuring the integrity of how government funding is spent, said Paul J. Coleman, a consultant who worked for NSF’s OIG for more than 20 years, hired as its first investigator shortly after OIG was created in 1988. “Without having people do oversight, we’re hurting ourselves, we’re hurting our own society,” Coleman said.
Aliza Sacknovitz, the deputy director of research integrity and administrative investigations, announced on LinkedIn that she would be leaving her position as of February 28. Sacknovitz did not reply to a request for comment.
Dwayne Meadows, an investigative scientist in the division, posted on LinkedIn that he opted to take the deferred resignation buyout offered to all federal employees earlier this year. Meadows declined to comment.
Lisa Vonder Haar, NSF OIG’s chief of staff, would not confirm these or other departures, citing Privacy Act concerns. She added, “Regardless of staff departures, we will continue to provide independent oversight of the U.S. National Science Foundation to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and economy of its programs and operations and to prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse.”
The departures will likely leave the OIG’s open research investigations in flux.
Last week, NSF fired about 10 percent of its staff, or 168 employees, Politico reported February 20. The move was “the first of many forthcoming workforce reductions,” Micah Cheatham, NSF’s chief management officer, told staffers in a February 18 meeting at the agency, according to a transcript of the meeting obtained by Politico’s E&E News.
The mission of NSF’s OIG is “to provide independent oversight of the U.S. National Science Foundation to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and economy of its programs and operations and to prevent and detect fraud, waste, and abuse.” Most recently, an audit of $12.1 million in costs incurred on 20 NSF grants to Northeastern University found evidence of mismanagement, leading the institution to agree to repay more than $600,000, Inside Higher Ed reported February 18. Other investigations into potential misconduct have led to retractions and debarment from NSF funding.
There have also been some notable changes at ORI, within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A comparison of ORI’s current staff page with a February 13 archive version reveals two key changes.
Ning Du had been acting director of ORI’s Division of Investigative Oversight since October, according to an announcement on the ORI website, and had been with the agency since 2018, according to her LinkedIn profile. She is no longer listed among the ORI staff.
Joya Patel, previously listed as ORI’s communications and external engagement director, is also missing from the current staff listing; she confirmed in a LinkedIn post she was one of thousands of federal employees fired in mid-February.
Both Patel and Du declined to comment.
With a staff of just around two dozen, ORI oversees research integrity and misconduct for the National Institutes of Health, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and several other HHS agencies. The Division of Investigative Oversight — now down to six scientist-investigators — reviews institutional inquiries and investigates possible research misconduct.
ORI has had a fair amount of turnover, particularly in its leadership. In 2017, its director Kathy Partin was removed from her post after clashes with ORI staff and those at other agencies. During her tenure, Susan Garfinkel, then-director of the Division of Investigative Oversight, left her post for a position at Ohio State. In January, Garfinkel announced she was returning to ORI as a senior adviser to the director, though it is unclear if she remains in that role after administration cuts of contractors and probationary employees.
Regardless of whether their departure was imposed or voluntary, several federal employees expressed pride in their time as a federal servant. “I leave the office immensely proud of the important work our little but mighty team that investigated research misconduct accomplished. We did good,” Sacknovitz wrote on LinkedIn.
A former government employee who asked to remain anonymous also expressed gratitude for the opportunities the job offered. “I’m thankful for the colleagues that remain, and I know that they have science’s best interest at heart and researchers’ best interest at heart,” the former employee said. “In my heart, I’m hoping that they actually get to do their job.”
But it’s not these agencies that will feel the biggest impact of the departures, Coleman said. “It’s going to be the scientific community. Most people who work at universities want to do the right thing and do the right thing, but there are bad actors,” he said. “If you don’t have people overseeing that area, then some of them might be able to avoid the consequences of their actions.”
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ori is a waste of tax$$$.