The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) relies on an honour system that leaves it unaware of the details of situations in which its external grantees have financial conflicts of interest, according to a report released on 17 January.

The report, from the inspector-general of the Department of Health and Human Services, found that nearly half of the NIH's 24 grant-making institutes and centres were unable to provide any of the financial disclosure reports they received from external institutions between 2004 and 2006. Of the 438 reports that were produced, 89% were devoid of details describing the conflicts or how they were being managed.

Such details are not required under current rules; the report recommended that this change. But the NIH disputed that advice, saying that if it agreed to accept detailed reports, it would be held accountable for oversight duties that are properly the job of grantees' institutions.