Patient health in clinical trials at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, a publicly funded institution, was jeopardized due to a lack of “research compliance capability,” according to a previously undiscosed portion of a federal monitor’s report, The Star-Ledger of New Jersey reports.

At issue is the university’s problem-plagued Office of Ethics and Compliance, and UMDNJ’s ability to audit research spending and report violations of clinical studies’ guidelines to the federal government. The confidential portion of the report found the ethics office, whose director recently resigned and is missing other key personnel, had failed in performing critical oversight of federal research grants, the paper writes. “UMDNJ admittedly has no research compliance capability at all and none is anticipated,” the monitor stated in the report.

The confidential report mentioned only one specific example of UMDNJ’s compliance failures - which the university also disputed. It involved a researcher conducting studies using Celebrex, which carries a Black Box warning. The monitor’s report said the physician, Todd Stitik, an osteoarthritis specialist at the UMDNJ-New Jersey Medical School in Newark, NJ, had placed patients at risk in a clinical research study and the university failed to file mandatory reports with the government. The report offered no details, the paper reports.

University officials said they had filed reports, and suspended Stitik’s research after a routine audit, but insisted the issues were administrative in nature. Denise Rodgers, UMDNJ’s executive vp of academic and clinical affairs, told the paper there was no evidence that any patients were ever endangered. Stitik didn’t return calls for comment and Rodgers says Stitik has voluntarily stopped participating in any research, according to the Ledger.