National Science Foundation

Problems Found in Decision Process for Awarding Earthquake Center Gao ID: RCED-87-146 June 24, 1987

In response to a congressional request, GAO examined the National Science Foundation's (NSF) procedures for awarding a cooperative agreement for an earthquake engineering research center (EERC) to determine whether: (1) the panelists that NSF chose exhibited favoritism for any proposal; (2) the panelists met NSF selection criteria for reviewers; and (3) problems existed with NSF management of the award process.

GAO noted that, since no documentation existed describing the panel's evaluation process, it based its findings on interviews with each panelist. GAO found that: (1) there was no evidence to suggest that panel members showed favoritism for one proposal over another during evaluation deliberations; and (2) the panelists' qualifications met NSF selection criteria and seemed appropriate for evaluating proposals for the center, since all had experience managing large research efforts, one was an earthquake engineering expert, and three had earthquake engineering experience. GAO also found serious problems with NSF management of the award process, since: (1) existing documentation did not adequately justify the award; (2) the matching funds requirement was not clear; and (3) the use of a conditional recommendation created the appearance of prejudgment.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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