GAO: NASA Recycling Effort Flawed

Another report from Gannett News Service's Eun Kyung Kim:

WASHINGTON - Inconsistent descriptions and wrong information are hampering a $29 million equipment recycling program being used by NASA as it prepares to retire the space shuttle program, according to a federal audit released today.

NASA started the program to help it decide what to do with more than 1.2 million types of equipment resulting from the shuttles' retirement next year.

Auditors from the Government Accountability Office, which reviewed the program at five NASA centers, said the agency lacked "adequate oversight and detailed guidance on what type of information should be included" in identifying equipment. That resulted in widely varying descriptions.

"For example, the same type of computer server equipment was described as a 'disk array,' 'disk drive unit,' and 'storage array unit.' These differences in descriptions may lead to reutilization opportunities being overlooked," the GAO said in its report.

Rep. Bart Gordon (shown at left), chairman of the House Science and Technology Committee, requested the report.

"NASA clearly is on the right track in trying to develop a tool for users to assess whether they needed to purchase new equipment or could avail themselves of existing resources," Gordon said. "But if the system contains unreliable and incomplete descriptions and if subsequent lengthy searches still need to be conducted, then users will lack confidence in the system and avoid using it."

The GAO made five recommendations in its report; NASA agreed with four of them.

Click here to read those suggestions, along with the full report.

IMAGES: Official seal of the Government Accountability Office. Source: GAO. Official photo of U.S. Rep. Bart Gordon, from his office's Web site.