The Department of Homeland Security needs to improve the
ethics-related management controls of its science and
technology directorate, the Government Accountability
Office has said.
The directorate was established shortly after DHS itself
in order to develop, for example, countermeasures to
biological threats, but it only recently began putting
management controls in place to guard against
conflicts-of-interest, according to GAO-06-206.
It said the potential for abuse is there because the
directorate hires experts from the national labs, who
then manage the directorate’s portfolios and can direct
part of its research budget or new projects back to the
national labs.
GAO said the department could do more to keep the
directorate in line, noting that while it put in place
a new process for hiring experts last June, the process
for determining where R-and-D projects and funds are
directed and the role of IPA portfolio managers –
experts hired from national labs – has never been finalized.
The directorate “does not require documentation of how
determinations are made about where R-and-D projects
and funds are directed,” and officials are only now
considering actions to allow IPA portfolio managers to
participate in certain matters, the report said.
Further, it said employees hired under the IPA do not
receive regular training that addresses the fact that
they have an agreement for future employment with an
entity that could benefit from the directorate’s
resources and plans.
The report concluded that the role of IPA portfolio
managers in determining where R-and-D projects and
associated funds were directed is unclear.
