The National Cancer Institute Needs To Strengthen Procedures in Its Pre-Award Process To Assess Risk for Higher Risk Applicants

The Department of Defense and Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Act, 2019, and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2019, P.L. No. 115-245, directed OIG to examine the efforts of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to ensure the integrity of its grant application evaluation and recipient selection processes. This audit is part of OIG's response to this directive. Our objective was to determine whether the National Cancer Institute (NCI) had adequate policies and procedures in its pre-award process for assessing risk when awarding grant funds.