The EPA has procured significant amounts of equipment that it rarely if ever uses, GAO has found, saying that laboratories that bought much of it have not complied with federal property regulations, that require equipment inspection walkthroughs every two years and the creation of equipment pools to maximize the use of idle equipment and identify obsolete pieces.
GAO sampled research equipment within three laboratories found that 30 of 99 pieces had not been used for two to 14 years, and six of them were obsolete. “Equipment used for air and water research sat idle either because there was no ongoing research necessitating its use or because it was being kept as backup equipment,” a report said.
It added that the EPA “does not manage its scientific equipment as a business unit or enterprise” and that managers and staff are not aware of federal property management requirements. It has not created a comprehensive, scientific equipment list that would make resources visible throughout the agency for key research decision-making and does not have clear lines of authority for equipment accountability and usage, it said—raising the risk of wasteful spending by purchasing duplicative equipment.
The agency in response has started developing a central list of capital equipment, and two laboratories started identifying idle equipment to excess, GAO said.
