US Department of Energy Office of Inspector General report on audit of program administration by the Office of Energy Research
The objective of the audit was to determine whether Energy Research had established performance expectations, including performance criteria and metrics, and used these expectations to monitor progress for basic and applied research performed at the Department`s national laboratories. Congressional and Departmental initiatives envision improved contract and program performance by requiring program managers to set measurable performance expectations. Even though research outcomes are inherently unpredictable, performance expectations can and should be established for scopes of work, milestones, resource limits and deliverables. However, Energy Research generally did not clearly specify--at either an aggregated program or individual task level--such expectations for research at the Department`s national laboratories. While information was available in the contractor`s research proposals, Energy Research essentially relied on the contractors to initiate and execute the research without agreement on expectations. This practice provided the Department with little basis to measure and evaluate contractor performance. Energy Research agreed in part with the finding and will take action on the recommendations in the report.
- Research Organization:
- USDOE Office of Inspector General, Oak Ridge, TN (United States). Eastern Regional Audit Office
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE, Washington, DC (United States)
- OSTI ID:
- 95270
- Report Number(s):
- DOE/IG-0376; ON: TI95016550; NC: NONE; TRN: AHC29523%%65
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: PBD: 2 Aug 1995
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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