' .
. '
- ~
.j'/ ~
~~~OF
s. DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE
Office of Inspector General
'fi
~4TES of t'
NA TIONAL OCEANICAND
ATMOSPHERIC ADMINISTRATION
Environmental Technology Laboratory
Needs to Improve Internal Controls
For Accounting and Funds Management
Report No. BTD-14852- 0001 /September 2003
PUBLIC RELEASE
Office of Audits, Business and Trade Audits Division
:.......... ....
;.......................................... ....... ...
.. . .. .. . .. ... . .. . .. .. ..... .. .. .. . .. .. .. .. .. . ...... .. ... .... .. . . .. . .. . .. .. . .. .. . . . . . . .. .. . . .. .. .
.
......
.
.
... .
.
...
.~
..
..
..
.
..
..
.........
.
.....
.
;
...
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................. i
WTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................
OBJECTIVES, SCOPE, AND METHODOLOGY......... ....................................... ..........
FINDWGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS................................................................................ ....
I. ETL Needs to hnprove Full Cost Recovery for Reimbursable Tasks ........................................
A. ETL improperly charged expenditures from unrelated reimbursable tasks to DOD'
task .................................................................................................................................
B. ETL inappropriately transferred expenditures from a reimbursable task to an
appropriated-funds task .......................................................................
C. Inappropriate use of expenditure transfers suggests a cost recovery problem that
OAR has been slow to address.......................................................................................
D. Letters of intent do not protect ETL against funding shortfalls .....................................
E. Critical MOU did not receive required Office of General C