CALIFORNIA IN BRIEF : STANFORD : U.S. Asked to Pay for Research Probe

Stanford University said it wants the government to pay $10 million for an army of auditors and accountants dealing with the ongoing dispute over federal research bills. Stanford Chief Financial Officer Peter Van Etten contends taxpayers should pay for the increased work because most of it is required to comply with new stringent government regulations and with requests for financial reforms. Those rules, most of which took effect Oct. 1, grew out of an ongoing federal probe at Stanford. The school has been accused of overbilling government as much as $200 million for research-related costs in the 1980s. School officials have denied any widespread abuse, but Stanford has paid back $2.3 million for inappropriate bills, including for maintenance of a yacht and parties and furniture for the president’s campus home. The $10 million would cover the cost of expanding Stanford’s financial research staff from 17 people to 79 during the 1992 fiscal year, which began Aug. 1, Van Etten said.