Inspection Report: IG-0465

The Fiscal Year 2000 National Defense Authorization Act provided that not later than March 30 of each year, beginning this year, the President shall submit to Congress an annual report on the United States (US) Government’s policies and procedures with respect to the export of technologies and technical information with potential military applications to countries and entities of concern. Under the Act’s provisions, to assist in this process, annual audits in this area are to be conducted by the Inspectors General of the Departments of Energy, Commerce,
Defense, and State. An interagency working group, comprised of representatives from the Offices of Inspector General of Energy, Commerce, Defense, and State, selected the export license process for foreign national visitors and assignees, referred to as the “deemed” export license process, as the topic for the year 2000 audit. Any release to a foreign national of
technology or software that is subject to the Export Administration Regulations is “deemed to be an export” to the home country of the foreign national. Release includes, among other things, visual inspection by foreign nationals of US-origin equipment and facilities and oral exchange of information.
The purpose of our inspection was to review actions by the Department of Energy (DOE) in response to selected concerns regarding deemed exports identified by this office during an interagency inspection of the Federal Government’s export license review process, which was completed in June 1999. The objectives of our current inspection were to review actions taken
by the Department to resolve issues associated with DOE’s deemed export license process, and to review actions taken at selected DOE sites to implement new procedures regarding the deemed export license process.