Sensitive and High-Risk Property Management at the Brookhaven National Laboratory
October 4, 2023
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September 29, 2023
Sensitive and High-Risk Property Management at the Brookhaven National Laboratory
The Brookhaven Site Office oversees the contract with Brookhaven Science Associates and provides technical direction and business management oversight of Brookhaven Science Associates. The Office of Science (Science) Consolidated Service Center provides professional services in such areas as real property and infrastructure, procurement, and safeguards and security to the entire Science complex. Science’s Organizational Property Management Officer is organizationally located within the Science Consolidated Service Center and responsible for establishing and administering the personal property management program consistent with applicable laws, regulations, practices, and standards.
41 Code of Federal Regulations 109, Department of Energy Property Management Regulations, states that contractors shall establish, implement, and maintain a system that provides for an efficient personal property management program. The system shall be consistent with the terms of the contract; prescribed policies, procedures, regulations, statutes, and instructions; and directions from the contracting officer.
We initiated this inspection to determine whether Brookhaven National Laboratory’s (BNL) property management program is sufficient to adequately classify, account for, and disposition sensitive and high-risk property.
We determined that BNL’s property management program was insufficient to adequately classify, account for, and disposition sensitive and high-risk property. Specifically, we found that BNL did not: classify its property as sensitive or high-risk, and items were not always identified as subject to export control requirements; properly account for property by conducting appropriate physical inventories of sensitive and high-risk property; and sufficiently disposition loaned property or Security Operations Division non-weapons inventory.
The issues we identified occurred because BNL’s property management policies and procedures did not fully incorporate 41 Code of Federal Regulations 109, Department of Energy Property Management Regulations, requirements related to sensitive and high-risk property. Additionally, the Brookhaven Site Office’s oversight of BNL’s sensitive and high-risk property program was insufficient.
This report contains three recommendations that, if fully implemented, should help ensure that BNL’s property management program is compliant with Federal regulations. Management fully concurred with our recommendations.