Proctor is coordinating a response from FAS, Harvard Medical School and the School of Public Health.

He sent the Department of Health and Human Services a list of actions that Harvard is taking to "show that we are serious about eliminating the problems," according to the memo.

"I don't really know the whole story," Proctor said. "Fundamentally, they communicated two years ago and we sent back a response and heard nothing back from them for over a year and the first thing we heard was this letter, saying [they were withdrawing expanded authority]."

"It was an instance where they were getting increasingly concerned and we weren't mindful of it," Proctor said.

The actions which the University will take will include closing accounts which should have already been closed and filing future reports on a timely basis.

Professors said yesterday that Harvard's accounting office does not submit its financial reports on time.

"All the information I receive about my grant is always late and impenetrable and it doesn't surprise me at all that it may be inaccurate," said Higgins Professor of Biology Daniel Branton.

"That they are frequently inaccurate is perfectly evident to everyone on faculty and I have complained about it since I've been on the faculty."

Eric Shropshire, director of financial services for the Office for Sponsored Research, said that Proctor received a letter from the NIH on October 25 and had responded as quickly as he could.

"We had 74 percent of our reports on time and they wanted 90 percent," Shropshire said. "Basically, we are putting into place a status report management and a reporting plan. We will hire two additional staff to address the workload and will give NIH top priority."

Proctor said that regular meetings, one of which was held yesterday, will be held to determine which professor's grants are late