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GAO-04-986R 1 (2004-08-05)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptaqon0001 and id is 1 raw text is: SGAO Accountability * Integrity Reliability United States Government Accountability Office Washington, DC 20548 August 6, 2004 Congressional Requesters Subject: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory: Further Improvements Needed to Strengthen Controls Over the Purchase Card Program The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) located in Livermore, California is a government-owned, contractor-operated national laboratory of the Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA).' The University of California manages the lab under a cost-reimbursable contract with NNSA. The university is paid a management fee to operate the lab and is reimbursed for all allowable costs charged to the contract. During the fall of 2002, the Federal Bureau of Investigation began investigating two Los Alamos National Laboratory employees for alleged misuse of lab credit cards. Other allegations of theft and misuse of government funds at Los Alamos soon followed. In light of the problems identified at Los Alamos, you asked us to review selected procurement and property management practices at two DOE and two NNSA contractor labs, including LLNL.2 This report summarizes the information provided during our June 14, 2004 briefing to your staff on these issues as they relate to Lawrence Livermore. The enclosed briefing slides highlight the results of our work and the information provided. Specifically, we reviewed LLNL's purchase card program and property management practices to determine whether (1) internal controls over the lab's purchase card (Pcard) program provided reasonable assurance that improper purchases would not occur or would be detected in the normal course of business, (2) purchase card expenditures made under the contract properly complied with lab policies and other applicable requirements and were reasonable in nature and amount and thus were allowable costs payable to the contractor under the contract, and (3) property controls over selected asset acquisitions provided reasonable assurance that 'The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) was created in fiscal year 2000 as a separately organized agency within DOE. As part of its national security mission, NNSA has responsibility for the institutional stewardship of three national security laboratories. 2The four labs we reviewed were DOE's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and NNSA's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Sandia National Laboratories. 3Separate briefings were provided for each of the labs reviewed, which we also summarized in separate letters. GAO-04-986R LLNL Purchase Card Controls

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