Over
the past few months, the procurement and property management practices
of the national laboratories have been subject to scrutiny by a variety
of federal agencies. The primary goal of these audits has been to
ensure that waste, fraud and abuse are not occurring at the Lab for
property purchased.
The first audit by DOE Headquarters’ CFO Office was conducted
in January. The CFO concentrated on assets already tagged in the
property management database and items purchased by P-CARD holders.
One hundred and seventy-two of the Lab’s personal computers
were selected for visual verification, and all 172 were accounted
for. The exit briefing included recommendations for stricter oversight
of P-CARD processing, documentation protocol changes, and reinstatement
of the practice of applying low-value stickers for personal property
acquisitions under $5,000.
A 4-person audit team from the Office of the Inspector General
used key words to select property items acquired through purchase
orders, from the computer supplier GC Micro, and from purchases
made by P-CARD holders. The GC Micro and P-CARD sampling generated
lists of many very low-dollar-value items. Berkeley Lab staff was
able to account for all but one of more than 700 items, despite
the challenge of searching for expendables, software and internal
components. The final report from the IG has not yet been issued.
A successful GAO review may close out the series of audits of procurement
and property management. The two-step audit will begin in late April
and will be a review of processes rather than an item sampling.
It will concentrate on the various control processes implemented
at the Lab in the Procurement and Property Management systems. After
evaluating their initial findings, the GAO will then return to test
the controls based on a sampling of the transactions.
The support of Laboratory personnel during the first two audits
enabled both Procurement and Property Management staff to comply
with the requests from the audit teams. A successful outcome of
the GAO audit will depend upon the continued support of all Laboratory
personnel, according to William Llewellyn, manager of the Site Services
Group in Facilities.
