Federal Research

During fiscal year 1997, the National Science Foundation (NSF), National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) awarded more than $12 billion in grants and cooperative agreements to nonprofit scientific organizations or nonprofit institutions of higher education to conduct basic or applied scientific research. This report identifies the guidance that NSF, NIH, and NOAA use to ensure that the recipients of grants and cooperative agreements for scientific research provide management controls over the equipment they acquire with federal funds and determines if four recipients from the Washington, D.C., area had acquired equipment under 14 awards of varying dollar amounts. GAO found that each of the three agencies generally allows the recipients of grants and cooperative agreements to have title to the purchased equipment, but that they also provide some guidance on how recipients are to account for these items.

GAO noted that: (1) each of the three agencies generally allows the recipients of grants and cooperative agreements to have title to the purchased equipment, but also provides some guidance on how recipients are to account for this equipment; (2) after the grants and cooperative agreements are awarded, these agencies do not maintain records showing which equipment was actually purchased; (3) however, the agencies have some assurance that the equipment was in fact purchased because these organizations have audits to ensure compliance with the award agreements, and these audits, together with the recipients' proposals, identify the equipment that the recipients proposed acquiring; and (4) GAO reviewed the documents showing that the recipients GAO visited had acquired the equipment specified in their proposals, and GAO saw the equipment either being used or awaiting installation.