NASA Property: Poor Lending Practices and Controls at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory (Letter Report, 04/18/94, GAO/NSIAD-94-116).

Poor lending practices and controls at the Jet Propulsion
Laboratory--the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA)
principal center for solar system exploration--have allowed employees to
borrow NASA equipment, including computers, VCRs, and cellular phones
for years at a time, and the Laboratory has written off more than $5
million worth of NASA items as lost or stolen.  The Laboratory, which is
federally funded but managed by Caltech, has about 6,400 employees and
an annual operating budget of about $1 billion.  GAO found major
weaknesses in the policies, procedures, and practices for lending NASA
equipment to Laboratory employees; in the identification and control of
NASA equipment at Caltech; and in the Laboratory's overall property
management system.  The upshot is that equipment has been purchased
unnecessarily, underused, lost, or stolen.  By September 1992, more than
4,000 items worth about $7.6 million were on loan to Laboratory
employees, mostly computer equipment.  Most of the borrowed equipment
was for home use and many borrowers were keeping it for lengthy
periods--2 years or more was common. NASA now plans to reassess the
Laboratory property system and has directed the Laboratory to do a
complete inventory in 1994.

--------------------------- Indexing Terms -----------------------------

 REPORTNUM:  NSIAD-94-116
     TITLE:  NASA Property: Poor Lending Practices and Controls at the 
             Jet Propulsion Laboratory
      DATE:  04/18/94
   SUBJECT:  Inventory control systems
             Aerospace research
             Laboratories
             Internal controls
             Federal property management
             Government owned equipment
             Federal employees
             Computer equipment management
             Research and development contracts

             
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