Advisory Groups Cite Continuing Mission and Management Concerns at the National Laboratories

Over the past several years, many government advisory groups have raised concerns about how DOE manages its national laboratory system. The laboratories are not operating as an integrated system. The reports include the following: In 1982, DOE’s Energy Research Advisory Board reported that the national laboratories duplicate private-sector research and that while DOE could take better advantage of the national laboratories’ capabilities, it needed to address its own management and organizational inefficiencies, which hamper the achievement of a more effective laboratory system.In 1983, a White House Science Council Panel found that while DOE’s laboratories had well-defined missions for part of their work, most activities were fragmented and unrelated to the laboratories’ main responsibilities.In 1992, DOE’s Secretary of Energy Advisory Board found that the laboratories’ broad missions, coupled with rapidly changing world events, had “caused a loss of coherence and focus at the laboratories, thereby reducing their overall effectiveness in responding to their traditional missions as well as new national initiatives. But while DOE has made progress—principally by reducing paperwork burdens on its laboratories—most of its actions are still in process or have unclear expectations and deadlines. Furthermore, the Department cannot demonstrate how its actions have resulted, or may result, in fundamental change. To analyze progress in laboratory management reform, we talked to DOE and laboratory officials and asked DOE to document the actions it has taken, is taking, or has planned to address the recommendations from several advisory groups. The actions DOE said it is taking include creating various internal working groups; strengthening the Energy R&D Council to facilitate more effective planning, budgeting, management, and evaluation of the Department’s R&D programs and to improve the linkage between research and technology development; increasing the use of private-sector management practices; adopting performance-based contracting and continuous improvement concepts; improving the oversight of efforts to enhance productivity and reduce overhead costs at the laboratories; expanding the laboratories’ work for other federal agencies; evaluating the proper balance between laboratories and universities for basic research; improving science and technology partnerships with industry; reducing unnecessary oversight burdens on laboratories; developing the Strategic Laboratory Missions Plan in July 1996 that identified laboratory activities in mission areas; creating the Laboratory Operations Board, which includes DOE officials and experts from industry and academia, to provide guidance and direction to the laboratories; and developing “technology roadmaps,” a strategic planning technique to focus the laboratories’ roles. Nor does the plan tie DOE’s or the laboratories’ missions to the annual budget process. Officials told us that the roadmaps are used to connect larger departmental goals and are a way to institutionalize strategic planning within the Department. These reports have also concluded that DOE has made some progress in addressing the problems noted by the Galvin Task Force but that progress has been slow and many of the recommendations need further actions. DOE did not strengthen this office. . . there is no DOE leadership to implement changes.”
We believe these organizational weaknesses are a major reason why DOE has been unable to develop long-term solutions to the recurring problems reported by advisory groups. Other actions DOE is taking are focused more on process than on results, and most are still incomplete, making it difficult to show how DOE intends to direct the laboratories’ missions and manage them more effectively as an integrated system—a major recommendation of past advisory groups. The Department’s complex organizational structure creates unclear lines of authority that dilute accountability and make reforms difficult to achieve. 9, 1995).
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of Energy's (DOE) progress in making needed management reforms in its national laboratories, focusing on: (1) the recommendations made by various advisory groups for addressing management weaknesses at DOE and the laboratories; and (2) how DOE and its laboratories have responded to these recommendations.

What GAO Found

GAO noted that: (1) for nearly 20 years, many advisory groups have found that while DOE's national laboratories do impressive research and development, they are unfocused, micromanaged by DOE, and do not function as an integrated national research and development system; (2) weaknesses in DOE's leadership and accountability are often cited as factors hindering fundamental reform of the laboratories' management; (3) as a result, advisory groups have made dozens of recommendations ranging from improving strategic planning to streamlining internal processes; (4) several past advisory groups have also suggested major organizational changes in the way the laboratories are directed; (5) to address past recommendations by advisory groups, DOE, at GAO's request, documented the actions it has taken, from creating new task forces to developing strategic laboratory plans; (6) while DOE has made some progress--principally by reducing paperwork burdens on its laboratories--most of its actions are still under way or have unclear outcomes; (7) furthermore, these actions lack the objectives, performance measures, and milestones needed to effectively track progress and account for results; (8) consequently, the Department cannot show how its actions have resulted, or may result, in fundamental change; (9) for example, its Strategic Laboratory Missions Plan, which was developed to give more focus and direction to the national laboratories, does not set priorities and is not tied to the annual budget process; (10) few experts and officials GAO consulted could show how the plan is used to focus missions or integrate the laboratory system; (11) DOE's latest technique for focusing the laboratories' missions is the technology roadmap; (12) roadmaps are plans that show how specific DOE activities relate to missions, goals, and performers; (13) roadmaps are a promising step but have been used in only a few mission areas and are not directly tied to DOE's budget process; (14) moreover, several laboratory directors questioned both the accuracy of the actions DOE has reported taking and their applicability at the laboratory level; (15) DOE's organizational weaknesses, which include unclear lines of authority, are a major reason why the Department has been unable to develop long-term solutions to the recurring problems reported by advisory groups; and (16) although DOE created the Laboratory Operations Board to help oversee laboratory management reform, it is only an advisory body within DOE's complex organizational structure and lacks the authority to direct change.