U.S. Department of Energy Office of Inspector General report on audit of acquisition of scientific research at Ames Laboratory

doi:10.2172/95271

Title: U.S. Department of Energy Office of Inspector General report on audit of acquisition of scientific research at Ames Laboratory

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Abstract

The Department awards grants and cooperative agreements and contracts to sponsor scientific research at colleges and universities. Compared to cooperative agreements, contracts, particularly management and operating contracts, often impose duplicative and/or unnecessary administrative and compliance burdens on a college or university. Since the Department bears the cost of those additional burdens, the authors audited the cost effectiveness of the Department`s sponsorship of research at Ames Laboratory under a management and operating contract with Iowa State University. The research conducted at Ames is of the type that Congress intended to be sponsored by assistance agreements, rather than contracts. Moreover, they found the contract for managing and operating Ames Laboratory caused micromanagement and unnecessary costs, most of which could have been avoided with a cooperative agreement. However, after completion of the field work, the Department announced initiatives to reduce or eliminate some compliance and oversight burdens associated with management and operating contracts, but did not opt to sponsor research under cooperative agreements. The authors are unable to determine the monetary impact because the initiatives have not been implemented. Nevertheless, they continue to believe that cooperative agreements, having fewer unique bureaucratic requirements, offer the potential for reducing administrative overhead.

Publication Date:: Fri Jul 14 00:00:00 EDT 1995

Research Org.:: USDOE Office of Inspector General, Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Eastern Regional Audit Office

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)

OSTI Identifier:: 95271

Report Number(s):: ER-B-95-05
ON: TI95016549; NC: NONE; TRN: AHC29523%%66

Resource Type:: Technical Report

Resource Relation:: Other Information: PBD: 14 Jul 1995

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 99 MATHEMATICS, COMPUTERS, INFORMATION SCIENCE, MANAGEMENT, LAW, MISCELLANEOUS; AMES LABORATORY; CONTRACTORS; PROGRAM MANAGEMENT; AUDITS; RESEARCH PROGRAMS; RECOMMENDATIONS

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                    . U.S. Department of Energy Office of Inspector General report on audit of acquisition of scientific research at Ames Laboratory.  United States: N. p., 1995. 
        Web.  doi:10.2172/95271.

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                    . U.S. Department of Energy Office of Inspector General report on audit of acquisition of scientific research at Ames Laboratory.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.2172/95271

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                    . 1995.  
        "U.S. Department of Energy Office of Inspector General report on audit of acquisition of scientific research at Ames Laboratory".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.2172/95271.  https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/95271.

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@article{osti_95271,

  title        = {U.S. Department of Energy Office of Inspector General report on audit of acquisition of scientific research at Ames Laboratory},

  author       = {},

  abstractNote = {The Department awards grants and cooperative agreements and contracts to sponsor scientific research at colleges and universities. Compared to cooperative agreements, contracts, particularly management and operating contracts, often impose duplicative and/or unnecessary administrative and compliance burdens on a college or university. Since the Department bears the cost of those additional burdens, the authors audited the cost effectiveness of the Department`s sponsorship of research at Ames Laboratory under a management and operating contract with Iowa State University. The research conducted at Ames is of the type that Congress intended to be sponsored by assistance agreements, rather than contracts. Moreover, they found the contract for managing and operating Ames Laboratory caused micromanagement and unnecessary costs, most of which could have been avoided with a cooperative agreement. However, after completion of the field work, the Department announced initiatives to reduce or eliminate some compliance and oversight burdens associated with management and operating contracts, but did not opt to sponsor research under cooperative agreements. The authors are unable to determine the monetary impact because the initiatives have not been implemented. Nevertheless, they continue to believe that cooperative agreements, having fewer unique bureaucratic requirements, offer the potential for reducing administrative overhead.},

  doi          = {10.2172/95271},

  url          = {https://www.osti.gov/biblio/95271},
  journal      = {},
number       = ,

  volume       = ,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Fri Jul 14 00:00:00 EDT 1995},

  month        = {Fri Jul 14 00:00:00 EDT 1995}

}

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