NASA’s Management of Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer Contracts Funded by the Recovery Act
We found NASA’s Recovery Act internal controls were generally effective in ensuring proper oversight, management, and transparency of Recovery Act funded SBIR/STTR contracts. The contracts we reviewed largely met cost, schedule, and performance milestones. In addition, 76 percent of contract deliverables were submitted within the agreed-upon timeframes, and NSSC implemented controls to further reduce the occurrence of late deliverables. However, we also found that due to resource limitations NASA did not implement three Recovery Act internal controls, including two controls relating to COTR certification and training. As a result, we noted seven instances where NASA employees designated as COTRs did not have the proper certification or training required by OMB guidance. In addition, we identified four contracts that contained unallowable equipment costs totaling $115,297. Lastly, we determined that NASA is making progress implementing the 14 internal controls identified in our January 2011 audit report as necessary to prevent and detect fraud in the SBIR Program.
