August 22, 2002

Procurement Administration at Brookhaven National Laboratory

In May 1999, the Office of Inspector General evaluated certain aspects of Brookhaven National Laboratory's (Brookhaven) procurement function and found that Brookhaven had not fully enforced the terms of its subcontracts for health physics technicians. This audit, Health Physics Technician Subcontracts at Brookhaven National Laboratory (ER-B-99-08, May 1999), recommended that Brookhaven strengthen its administration of subcontracts. Department of Energy (Department) management concurred with our recommendations and directed Brookhaven to implement improvements. To gauge the sufficiency of corrective actions, we initiated this follow-on audit at the request of the Brookhaven Area Office to determine whether Brookhaven administered procurements in accordance with applicable regulations and its contract.