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Law360 (January 27, 2021, 8:33 PM EST) -- The U.S. Office of Special Counsel on Wednesday told the White House and lawmakers that a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services division responsible for dealing with public health crises misused millions in funds meant to respond to emergencies such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
The OSC announced that a tip from an unnamed whistleblower ignited a probe into the purported misappropriation of money meant for things like vaccine research.
When the OSC was alerted by the whistleblower, it said HHS' Office of Inspector General investigated, finding the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response misappropriated money for around a decade.
"I am deeply concerned about ASPR's apparent misuse of millions of dollars in funding meant for public health emergencies like the one our country is currently facing with the COVID-19 pandemic," Special Counsel Henry J. Kerner said in a statement.
The funds that were misused were actually meant for the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, according to Wednesday's announcement.
"Equally concerning is how widespread and well known this practice appeared to be for nearly a decade, even garnering the nickname 'Bank of BARDA,'" Kerner said.
Not only were the funds misappropriated by ASPR, it never accurately reported that misuse, the OSC said.
Those millions of dollars were used to pay for things not related to what the money was meant for, Wednesday's announcement said.
For example, the funds were used to remove office furniture and pay for news subscriptions, the OSC said. The money also wrongly went toward administrative and legal costs as well as the salaries of people who were not BARDA employees, according to the OSC.
The OSC didn't calculate the exact amount of money that was misused, but Wednesday's announcement said there was evidence that about "$25 million was taken from BARDA's Advanced Research and Development programs and improperly provided to ASPR" as recent as the 2019 fiscal year.
Additionally, "ASPR's reporting to Congress failed to account for $517.8 million in administrative expenditures" between 2007 and 2016, the OSC said.
Further, the office said that the assistant secretary for financial resources and the Office of General Counsel at HHS have begun an internal probe into the misused funds, and are also having an outside firm do an audit, which is expected to be wrapped up by summer.
Representatives for HHS did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
--Editing by Adam LoBelia.
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