United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office General Government Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1998-02-03 monographic deposited born digital 50 p. GA 1.13:GGD-98-28 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GGD-98-28 P0b002ee1803828cb f:gg98028 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-GGD-98-28 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-GGD-98-28 GGD-98-28 Research and development Search and seizure Interagency relations Drug trafficking Narcotics Agency missions Research program management Law enforcement National Counterdrug Enforcement Research and Development Program Letter Report GGD Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the operations and contributions of the Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center (CTAC), focusing on: (1) how CTAC coordinates its counterdrug research and development (R&D) efforts with other federal agencies to address counterdrug R&D needs that are not being met by other agencies and to avoid unnecessary duplication; and (2) what contributions CTAC has made to counterdrug R&D efforts since its creation.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) CTAC has a coordination process in place for identifying counterdrug technology needs and selecting and funding R&D projects to meet those needs; (2) however, GAO identified the following shortcomings in CTAC's design and execution of the process: (a) the Science and Technology (S&T) Committee's charter, which was created before CTAC existed, does not reflect the Committee's current composition, responsibilities, and relationship to CTAC; (b) CTAC did not regularly and consistently involve the S&T Committee in its coordination process; (c) CTAC did not regularly evaluate and prioritize the agencies' counterdrug R&D technology needs to ensure that it funded otherwise unfunded projects with the highest priority; (d) CTAC did not systematically identify and consider the counterdrug technology needs of state and local agencies, in conjunction with federal agencies' needs, as part of its regular process for selecting and funding projects, and state and local agencies were only recently represented on the S&T Committee; (e) agencies generally did not submit transitional or acquisition plans to CTAC; and (f) although a few agencies cited instances where duplication was avoided as a result of CTAC's efforts, CTAC had not developed any means for determining the extent to which unnecessary duplication had been identified and avoided due to its efforts; (3) as a result of these shortcomings, neither GAO nor CTAC could determine the extent to which its coordination process was meeting its mission; (4) GAO's task of determining CTAC's contribution to federal drug control efforts was complicated by CTAC's lack of meaningful performance measures to enable it to: (a) assess its progress in achieving its mission and contributing to the development and deployment of counterdrug technology; and (b) identify and implement any needed improvements to better achieve its mission; (5) CTAC's Chief Scientist told GAO that he considered not just technologies that are completed and in use as contributions, but also uncompleted projects that have reached various stages of development; and (6) the contact officials of the lead R&D agencies identified by CTAC told GAO that they considered 10 of the 36 projects cited as contributions by CTAC to be actual contributions. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GGD-98-28/html/GAOREPORTS-GGD-98-28.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-GGD-98-28/pdf/GAOREPORTS-GGD-98-28.pdf GAO/GGD-98-28 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-GGD-98-28 Letter Report GAO/GGD-98-28; Drug Control: Planned Actions Should Clarify Counterdrug Technology Assessment Center's Impact; Research and development Search and seizure Interagency relations Drug trafficking Narcotics Agency missions Research program management Law enforcement National Counterdrug Enforcement Research and Development Program Public Law 100-690 Public Law 101-510 Public Law 103-62 Public Law 103-322