Review of ORD's Extramural Management Specialist

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

PURPOSE

Historically the Office of Research and Development (ORD) has experienced weaknesses in extramural management. As a result, in 1990, under the Federal Mangers' Financial Integrity Act (FMFIA), the Agency declared ORD's management of extramural resources a Presidential-level material weakness. In response, ORD established the Extramural Management Specialist (EMS) position to help correct some of its contracting deficiencies. We examined the EMS position to determine its effectiveness in correcting ORD's extramural weaknesses. The objectives of the audit were to determine:

The functions EMSs perform. The benefits ORD gained from the position, and the method ORD uses to measure the benefits. The mission EMSs should serve with regard to procurement issues.

RESULTS IN BRIEF

The EMS position helped to improve ORD's extramural management. The position contributed to ORD removing extramural management as a FMFIA weakness. EMSs' on-site accessibility enabled them to advise and train ORD management and technical staff on proper extramural management procedures.

Although the creation of the position was beneficial, we found areas needing improvement. ORD had not clearly defined the EMS role and, as a result, this sometimes led to the performance of unallowable or unintended duties. Further, the Office of Acquisition Management (OAM) and the Grants Administration Division (GAD) did not fully understand the benefits of working with EMSs. ORD also had support staff who performed EMS-related duties. In some cases, the support staff helped do the work of EMSs who were less knowledgeable in the assistance agreement area. Also, the EMS role is evolving, given decreasing and shifting ORD budget projections. Since ORD created the EMS position, it has not performed any extramural workload analyses to determine the best use of its EMS resources.

RECOMMENDATIONS

We recommend that the Assistant Administrator for Research and Development require his staff to:

1. Develop a standardized EMS position description, with assistance from OAM and GAD, which includes a "core" set of duties and responsibilities to ensure consistent implementation nationwide.

2. Revise Chapter 4 of the ORD Policies and Procedures Manual to clarify that EMSs are not permitted to perform PO duties either officially or informally, unless a waiver is granted. ORD needs to delineate under what circumstances a waiver is appropriate.

3. Communicate the EMS role to OAM and GAD management and staff, and take steps to improve the communication between them.

4. Identify those support staff performing extramural duties, and develop, clarify, and communicate policies regarding the appropriate role of support staff in extramural matters, including whether support staff can be POs.

5. Coordinate with GAD on the feasibility of establishing rotational assignments for EMSs needing more assistance agreement experience.

6. Conduct extramural workload analyses by location to determine the best use of ORD's EMS resources.

7. Initiate discussions with the Director, GAD to consider revising its IAG Compendium and its Assistance Administration Manual, and provide input to GAD on what information needs revision.

ORD COMMENTS AND OIG EVALUATION The Assistant Administrator for ORD provided a written response to our draft report on March 26, 1997. The Assistant Administrator agreed with all recommendations in this report. ORD is developing a corrective action plan, including milestone dates, to address our recommendations and will submit this within the 90-day comment period. We will evaluate ORD's corrective action plan when received. Appendix 1 contains a copy of ORD's written response to our draft report.

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Created April 28, 1997

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