United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1995-05-08 monographic deposited born digital 25 p. GA 1.13:RCED-95-118 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-118 P0b002ee180379b1c f:rc95118 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-118 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-118 RCED-95-118 Laboratories Federal procurement Centralization Information analysis operations Cost control Contract administration Soil conservation Water conservation Nuclear facilities Radioactive waste disposal Superfund Program Hanford (WA) Fernald (OH) Rocky Flats (CO) Oak Ridge (TN) Letter Report RCED Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Energy's (DOE) decentralized approach to laboratory analysis, focusing on: (1) the differences in prices and contracting approaches between DOE and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for similar types of laboratory analyses; (2) whether DOE decentralized approach has resulted in any administrative inefficiencies; and (3) key changes DOE is making in its contracting procedures.<p/>GAO found that: (1) DOE pays substantially higher prices than EPA for the same types of commercial laboratory analyses; (2) while savings could be achieved through centralization, the amount of savings is difficult to measure; (3) unlike DOE, EPA conducts two procurements for organic and inorganic analyses for Superfund sites, while the DOE decentralized approach results in numerous inefficiencies, such as contractors performing redundant quality assurance evaluations at numerous commercial laboratories; and (4) DOE has recently identified 17 initiatives designed to improve many phases of its laboratory analysis program, but it does not plan to change its decentralized approach to laboratory analyses. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-118/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-118.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-118/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-118.pdf GAO/RCED-95-118 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-95-118 Letter Report GAO/RCED-95-118; Nuclear Facility Cleanup: Centralized Contracting of Laboratory Analysis Would Produce Budgetary Savings; Laboratories Federal procurement Centralization Information analysis operations Cost control Contract administration Soil conservation Water conservation Nuclear facilities Radioactive waste disposal Superfund Program Hanford (WA) Fernald (OH) Rocky Flats (CO) Oak Ridge (TN)