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GAO-04-989R 1 (2004-08-05)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptaqop0001 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: Sandia National Laboratories: Further Improvements Needed to
         Strengthen Controls Over the Purchase Card Program

         The Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) operate in Albuquerque, New Mexico and
         Livermore, California. Sandia is a government-owned, contractor-operated national
         laboratory of the Department of Energy's (DOE) National Nuclear Security
         Administration (NNSA).' The Lockheed Martin Corporation manages the lab under a
         cost-reimbursable contract with NNSA. Lockheed Martin 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 Sandia.2

         This report summarizes the information provided during our June 14, 2004 briefing to
         your staff on these issues as they relate to Sandia. The enclosed briefing slides
         highlight the results of our work and the information provided. Specifically, we
         reviewed Sandia'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 accountable assets





         '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-04-989R Sandia Purchase Card Controls

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