by James A. Bacon
A recent audit by George Mason University “appears to reveal” that climatologist Dr. Jagadish Shukla engaged in “double dipping” when he paid himself a full salary from the Institute of Global Environment and Society (IGES) while pocketing a salary from GMU, according to Lamar Smith, chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology.
“This practice may have violated GMU’s university policy, his employment contract with the university, and Virginia state law,” wrote Smith in a letter to Alison C. Lerner, inspector general of the National Science Foundation.
Shukla, who served on Governor Terry McAuliffe’s Climate Change and Resiliency Update Commission, attracted national scrutiny when he and co-workers at GMU signed a letter last year urging President Obama to prosecute corporate climate “deniers” under the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) law. Shortly thereafter, skeptics of global warming orthodoxy pointed out that Shukla might be violating the law by paying his wife and himself handsome salaries through IGES even while drawing a salary from GMU.
Smith, who has used his committee chairmanship to expose alleged wrong-doings of climate change scientists, then began looking into the Shukla case. Shukla’s institute, IGES, has received $63 million in taxpayer-funded grants since 2001 to conduct work primarily on climate computer modeling.
The main revelation in Smith’s letter is the reference to a GMU audit of Shukla’s financing. Wrote Smith:
According to GMU’s Faculty Handbook, “outside employment and paid consulting cannot exceed the equivalent of one day per week without written authorization from the collegiate dean or institute director.” Dr. Shukla violated this policy five different time periods from 2003 to 2015 because he failed to receive approval for paid consulting services in excess of one day per week. This allowed Dr. Shukla to double dip by receiving his full salary from GMU while receiving an excessive salary for working 28 hours per week at IGES. In another instance, in 2014 Dr. Shukla received $292,688 in compensation from IGES for working 28 hours per weeks while simultaneously receiving 100% of his GMU salary. In total, Dr. Shukla received $511,410 in compensation from IGES and GMU during 2014, without ever receiving the appropriate permission from GMU officials, apparently violating university policy.
Bacon’s bottom line:
If Smith’s letter is an accurate representation of the evidence uncovered by GMU’s audit, one must ask how GMU will respond to Shukla’s double dipping. Shukla is one of the university’s most prestigious scientific faculty members, and he brings in millions of dollars in grants that support the activity of other professors and graduate students. The temptation may be to sweep the controversy under the rug. The question is whether the rules of conduct are to be applied to everyone or overlooked when convenient.
The Shukla controversy is a big test of the integrity of GMU’s governance policies. So far, the media has been asleep to this issue. Maybe it’s time to wake up.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.