Summary: Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined federal government programs' laboratory accreditation requirements to determine whether any had overlapping requirements which could be streamlined.
GAO found that: (1) a National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) study identified 13 federal agencies with 33 laboratory accreditation programs; (2) accreditation typically involved evaluation of organizational information, quality control, personnel, facilities and equipment, testing methods, recordkeeping, test reports, and proficiency testing, although programs required differing degrees of specificity; (3) the programs, which typically involved different fields of laboratory testing, generally did not overlap, although there was some overlap between the NIST National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Description of Measurement Facilities Program; (4) programs differed in their accreditation application requirements, with 70 percent requiring both paperwork and on-site reviews; (5) laboratory officials believed that some of the programs' requirements were burdensome; (6) most programs did not separate accreditation costs from other expenses, since they believed that accreditation was only a small part of the complete program; (7) only two programs charged fees for participation in their programs; (8) laboratory officials believed that accreditation at the national level provided greater credibility for their services and was of growing importance to international trade and U.S. competitiveness; and (9) one accreditation program had bilateral agreements with several countries to recognize each country's accredited laboratories.
