Energy Dept. | The Contracting Education Academy

March 22, 2021 By cs

GAO report suggests DOE should identify more instances of contractor fraud

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report on Department of Energy (DOE) contracting, entitled “Improvements Needed to Ensure DOE Assesses Its Full Range of Contracting Fraud Risks.”

The thrust of the report is that DOE should do more to prevent and detect fraud, particularly in less-examined areas such as bid-rigging, misrepresentation of eligibility, kickbacks and gratuities, and conflicts of interest.

DOE relies on contractors to carry out its missions at laboratories and other facilities, spending approximately 80 percent of its $41 billion in total obligations on contracts. In March 2017, GAO reviewed DOE’s approach to managing its risk of fraud and found DOE did not use leading practices, resulting in missed opportunities to mitigate the likelihood and impact of fraud.

In its most recent report, GAO examined DOE’s processes for managing contracting fraud risks and concluded that DOE has not assessed the full range of fraud risks it faces.

Despite some improvements toward combating fraud in response to GAO’s March 2017 recommendations, GAO noted that the agency’s methods for gathering information capture only top fraud risks and fail to obtain information on fraud risks for non-management and operating (M&O) contractors.

GAO reviewed nine categories of contracting fraud schemes that occurred at DOE sites, and found that DOE’s risk profiles for FY 2018 and 2019 captured five of these nine fraud schemes (billing schemes, payroll schemes, product quality, theft, contract progress schemes), but failed to capture four others: bid-rigging, misrepresentation of eligibility, kickbacks and gratuities, and conflicts of interest. The report urges DOE to give these other areas greater focus in its fraud risk planning.

Keep reading this article at: https://governmentcontractsnavigator.com/2021/01/19/gao-report-suggests-doe-should-identify-more-instances-of-contractor-fraud/

October 19, 2020 By cs

Civilian agency contract spending reaches record high in FY20

The novel coronavirus pandemic largely contributed to the increase, Bloomberg Government reports.

Civilian agencies’ contract spending hit a record high of $228 billion in fiscal 2020, an increase of 17% ($33.5 billion) from 2019. The surge in spending is mainly due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.

The Health and Human Services, Veterans Affairs and Energy departments drove the increase in spending, Bloomberg Government said in a report. Of the $228 billion, 26% or $59.4 billion went to small businesses, a $6.5 billion increase from fiscal 2019.

“In previous years there’s been single digit jumps, so this is a huge jump compared to previous years,” Robert Levinson, senior defense analyst at Bloomberg Government, told Government Executive. He noted that there is a 90-day delay for the Defense Department’s contract spending for security purposes and there is also classified spending that will never be released.

HHS, which spent $41.2 billion in fiscal 2020 in contract obligations, accounted for 44% of the $33.5 billion in overall increased civilian contract spending. The majority of HHS’ spending was for vaccines, research, ventilators and other pandemic-related efforts. Some of these contracts, such as for a public relations campaign to “inspire hope” about the pandemic and new data reporting system, have drawn concern from Democratic lawmakers.

Keep reading this article at: https://www.govexec.com/management/2020/10/civilian-agency-contract-spending-reaches-record-high-fiscal-2020/169127/

August 27, 2019 By cs

Research, sponsored activity awards top $1 billion at Georgia Tech

Research, economic development and other sponsored activities at Georgia Tech passed a significant milestone during the fiscal year that concluded on June 30, recording more than a billion dollars in new grants, contracts and other awards. The record amount comes from federal government agencies, companies, private organizations, the state of Georgia and other sources.

The growth in new awards for sponsored activity allows Georgia Tech to take on complex and significant challenges involving multiple disciplines and collaborating organizations that bring together teams of researchers with a broad range of specialized expertise, noted Chaouki Abdallah, Georgia Tech’s executive vice president for research.

“Tackling society’s most pressing challenges requires multidisciplinary teams of scientists, engineers, business experts, policymakers and humanists, crosses multiple areas of specialization and often necessitates involvement from more than one research organization,” Abdallah said. “This level of funding allows us to participate in and lead more complex, more important and more impactful research projects. We are grateful to our research collaborators and to the state of Georgia for the confidence they have placed in us by providing these resources.”

The new funds also show Georgia Tech’s expanding role in national security, where defense agencies increasingly rely on the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI) – Georgia Tech’s applied research arm – to tackle complex national defense, homeland security and related challenges. For some of this work, GTRI has contracts through its designation as a University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) that delivers essential engineering capabilities to Department of Defense agencies.

Accounting for approximately $643 million of the $1,050,095,192 total, GTRI employs more than 2,300 engineers, scientists and support staff at facilities in Atlanta, Warner Robins and other locations around the United States. GTRI’s research spans a variety of disciplines, including autonomous systems, cybersecurity, electromagnetics, electronic warfare, modeling and simulation, sensors, systems engineering, test and evaluation, and threat systems.

Among the examples of large, collaborative projects funded at Georgia Tech during fiscal 2019 is a $21.9 million award from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop new techniques for battling a potential flu pandemic. The project will involve five universities, a company and the Centers for the Disease Control and Prevention in developing new ways to help the body resist infection, fight the virus and boost the effects of vaccines.

In another example, Georgia Tech is leading a consortium of 12 universities and 10 national laboratories in a $25 million project with the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to develop new technologies and educational programs to support the agency’s nuclear science, security and nonproliferation goals. The award will link basic research at universities with the capabilities of U.S. national laboratories.

Beyond defense and national security, Georgia Tech received a $13.5 million award from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to help bring together research teams working on a global grand challenge: reinventing the toilet. The project could improve sanitation for 2.5 billion people worldwide without requiring costly new sewer lines or wastewater treatment facilities.

In the humanities, Georgia Tech’s Digital Integrative Liberal Arts Center (DILAC) received a three-year, $1.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to continue and expand its innovative work in the digital humanities. The new award followed $1 million of initial funding from the Mellon Foundation that established the DILAC, which uses digital projects to engage undergraduate students in the liberal arts.

For its home state, Georgia Tech conducts research to benefit farmers and food companies with improved crop monitoring, food processing and inspection technology. And researchers recently helped the Georgia Division of Family and Children Services protect case managers with the development of ClickSafe, a small device that can quickly summon help if needed.

Solving critical challenges for research sponsors is just one part of Georgia Tech’s innovation pipeline. Research often leads to discoveries that can, in due course, become the basis for new products, new goods, new services and new industries. To create new jobs and new investment, Georgia Tech can license technology to existing companies and startups. During fiscal 2019, Georgia Tech filed 87 U.S. patent applications and executed 55 licenses for the use of intellectual property. At least seven startup companies were launched during the year based on research discoveries.

Startup companies in Georgia Tech’s VentureLab program – which helps faculty, staff and students create new enterprises – attracted $347 million in new investment during the fiscal year. During 2019, VentureLab assisted 111 Georgia Tech faculty members. The National Science Foundation I-Corps program, which helps faculty members prepare for commercializing technology, served 43 Georgia Tech faculty members during fiscal year 2019. Georgia Tech I-Corps teams attracted $14 million in investment.

In addition to its impact on the nation’s safety, quality of life and economic prosperity, Georgia Tech’s research program benefits its students by providing real-world experience. In fiscal 2019, approximately 4,000 students worked in the research program as graduate research assistants, while another 2,400 students participated in undergraduate research, supplementing classroom, laboratory and other educational activities.

Two measures are often used to assess the volume of university research programs. A number for total awards represents new funding provided during a specific fiscal year. These awards often support sponsored activities that take place across more than one year, so funding from a specific award may be included in multiple expenditure reports, which are the other metric commonly used for measuring research programs. An expenditures number includes the total amount actually spent during a specific year.

Georgia Tech conducts research through GTRI, its six academic colleges, 11 interdisciplinary research institutes and the Enterprise Innovation Institute, Georgia Tech’s economic development and business assistance unit.

Source: https://www.news.gatech.edu/2019/08/26/research-sponsored-activity-awards-top-1-billion-georgia-tech

February 19, 2019 By AMK

$25 million award will support nuclear nonproliferation R&D, education

A consortium of 12 universities and 10 national laboratories led by the Georgia Institute of Technology has been awarded $25 million from the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) to develop new technologies and educational programs to support the agency’s nuclear science, security and nonproliferation goals.

The award will provide $5 million per year across a five-year period to link basic research at universities with the capabilities of national laboratories through the Consortium for Enabling Technologies and Innovation (ETI). The effort will focus on three core disciplines: computer and engineering science research through machine learning and high performance computing, advanced manufacturing and nuclear detection technologies.

“We will be developing new enabling technologies to address not only the current challenges, but also those we might anticipate in the future,” said Anna Erickson, the consortium’s principal investigator and an associate professor in Georgia Tech’s Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. “Beyond these technologies, we will create the next cohort of students and researchers able to join the national laboratories to implement cutting-edge technologies to help the NNSA achieve its goals.”

Among the potential research topics are understanding how advanced manufacturing might produce nuclear reactor components and fuel assemblies, machine learning to predict and uncover new phenomena affecting proliferation, and novel instrumentation to leverage cutting-edge capabilities in microelectronics, solid state technologies and other areas to detect radioactive materials.

“Machine learning and additive manufacturing are being actively used and pursued by leading private organizations, but they are not well utilized in our field today,” she explained. “We need to get away from conventional thinking and cultivate new technologies that take advantage of developments outside traditional nuclear engineering.”

The NNSA and the national laboratories are responsible for the nation’s nuclear stockpile, and also for preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and materials worldwide. That challenge is growing as new technologies – including additive manufacturing, also known as 3D printing – makes possible manufacturing that in the past could only be done in a limited number of facilities.

“We need to look at securing the technologies of the future,” Erickson said.

The technologies of the future will require people to use them. The ETI Consortium will be developing new coursework and pathways to national laboratory internships designed to attract the best students and give them a broad education that goes beyond traditional nuclear engineering. The courses will be taught by the participating universities, and potentially also through online platforms.

“We want to educate students who have a good understanding of new technologies in general,” Erickson said. “We will encourage them to challenge the world and see the world differently. Over the next five years, our goals are to create something that will have a lasting effect on this industry.”

The consortium’s education goal is to transfer more than 40 graduate students and 20 undergraduate students to the national laboratories over the next five years. As part of that strategy, it will provide approximately 70 internships, and establish eight faculty-student laboratory visit fellowships.

Consistent with the vision of broadening the technology base, only a quarter of the faculty involved in the ETI Consortium will be traditional nuclear engineers. “People will come from all kinds of disciplines, from materials science to chemistry, advanced manufacturing and computer science. We are taking people with very diverse backgrounds and asking them to work together to create a new vision.”

In addition to Georgia Tech, the consortium will include the University of Wisconsin and The Ohio State University as leads of thrust areas, as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Michigan, University of Hawaii, Colorado School of Mines, Texas A&M University, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Washington State University, Duke University and University of Texas at Austin.

The national laboratory partners will include Brookhaven National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Idaho National Laboratory, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory, Sandia National Laboratory, Argonne National Laboratory and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory.

“These grants will foster development of concepts and technologies that keep the United States at the forefront of nuclear monitoring and verification capabilities and allow us to nurture tomorrow’s nonproliferation experts,” said Brent K. Park, NNSA’s Deputy Administrator for Defense Nuclear Nonproliferation.

At Georgia Tech, the effort will also include Steven Biegalski, professor in the Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering and chair of the Nuclear and Radiological Engineering and Medical Physics Program; Tim Lieuwen, executive director of the Strategic Energy Institute and a professor in the School of Aerospace Engineering; Amit Jariwala, senior academic professional in the School of Mechanical Engineering; Bernard Kippelen, the Joseph M. Pettit Professor and director of the Center for Organic Photonics and Electronics, and Chris Summers, professor emeritus and director of the Phosphor Technology Center of Excellence.

Success with the five-year ETI Consortium could help change the way students see the field of nuclear engineering and how the U.S. population views nuclear power and other components of the industry.

“We want people to think about nuclear engineering in a different light,” said Erickson. “Nuclear engineering has been very specific to a narrow discipline, but we are trying to show the community that we are much more. We want to create the next-generation thinker, and there is nothing traditional about this effort.”

The NNSA also announced the Consortium for Monitoring, Technology & Verification, a partnership of 14 universities led by the University of Michigan that is also funded for $25 million over five years. That organization seeks to improve U.S. capabilities to monitor the nuclear fuel cycle. “Its nonproliferation focus will be nuclear and particle physics, signals and source terms, and the physics of monitoring nuclear materials,” the NNSA announcement said.

Source: https://www.news.gatech.edu/2019/02/06/25-million-award-will-support-nuclear-nonproliferation-rd-education

August 24, 2018 By AMK

GAO: National Nuclear Security Administration needs better contract oversight

Some of the field offices of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) aren’t using a key Energy Department IT system to track important management and operations contracts, an oversight the Government Accountability Office (GAO) warns could potentially cost NNSA millions.

The NNSA, the semi-autonomous agency within the Energy Department, should officially advise its field offices to use a DOE’s Strategic Integrated Procurement Enterprise System (STRIPES) system to manage billions in management and operating (M&O) contracts, GAO said.

Those field offices, said the report, are using the web-based STRIPES for contract writing and modification, but not tapping its document management capabilities.

For the audit, GAO monitored contracts from NNSA’s Office of Acquisition and Project Management (OAPM), which is in charge of managing the M&O contracts for field offices. NNSA spent $11 billion through such contracts in fiscal 2016, GAO noted.

Keep reading this article at: https://fcw.com/articles/2018/08/06/gao-nnsa-rockwell.aspx

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report on Department of Energy (DOE) contracting, entitled “Improvements Needed to Ensure DOE Assesses Its Full Range of Contracting Fraud Risks.”

The novel coronavirus pandemic largely contributed to the increase, Bloomberg Government reports.

Some of the field offices of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) aren’t using a key Energy Department IT system to track important management and operations contracts, an oversight the Government Accountability Office (GAO) warns could potentially cost NNSA millions.

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