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Conflicts of interest reported at top science agency WASHINGTON (February 10, 1998 3:12 p.m. EST http://www.nando.net) -- A top National Science Foundation official violated conflict-of-interest laws by receiving honorary payments from agency grant recipients and playing a substantial role in awarding a grant to an organization with which he was discussing employment, internal auditors found. The official, Luther S. Williams, remains in charge of the science agency's education office while the Justice Department reviews allegations brought forward last year by the science foundation's Office of Inspector General. Neither the agency nor the Justice Department identified Williams by name. But congressional sources confirmed Tuesday that it is Williams, 57, a microbiologist who has been an assistant director of the agency since June 1990, now earning $125,900 a year. Williams declined comment Tuesday, and Mary Hanson, a spokeswoman for the science agency, said only: "The director of the agency is satisfied that the agency is responding appropriately." The allegations were first reported last month in The Chronicle of Higher Education, an academic newspaper. As assistant director for Education and Human Resources, Williams manages the agency's education programs at all grade levels as well as graduate and postdoctoral fellowship programs and faculty awards for women. The division had a 1997 budget of $619 million, of which $611 million was for grants. The agency is deeply involved in projects aimed at improving math and science teaching from Kindergarten through high school. The agency inspector general, in a routine report last year to Congress, said it found evidence that "an NSF executive" had received several honoraria payments for speaking to institutions that receive NSF money and that the speeches involved his role as a foundation official. "We also found that the executive participated personally and substantially in the approval of an NSF grant to an organization with which he was negotiating prospective employment," the report said. No grantees were named. Both actions are violations of federal law, the investigators said, adding that they had referred the matter to the Justice Department. Department spokesman John Russell declined comment Tuesday. Williams, a native of Sawyerville, Ala., had been president of Atlanta University and held posts at Purdue University and the National Institutes of Health before going to the foundation. Although the agency usually has avoided controversy, Williams recently angered members of Congress for involving the agency in a California dispute over math teaching. The state recently adopted new standards that stress basics of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division instead of more creative problem- solving approaches advocated by math teachers and the agency. In a letter last December to the state board of education president, Williams mentioned $50 million in math teaching grants to six California school districts and said the agency "cannot support" school systems that reject a modern teaching approach aimed at reaching more pupils but considered by critics to be fuzzy. Neal Lane, the agency director, later wrote the board saying that the Williams letter was not intended as a threat. By ROBERT GREENE, The Associated Press Copyright 1998 Nando.net Copyright 1998 The Associated Press janet paterson 50-9 / sinemet-selegiline-prozac almonte-ontario-canada / [log in to unmask]