Summary: Over the past several years, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has increasingly relied on universities to assist it in meeting its research needs. DOT was unable to provide GAO with complete or accurate information on all awards. Consequently, GAO surveyed 206 universities about awards and costs and found that 141 institutions had received $190 million in new awards directly from DOT during fiscal years 1991 through 1993. Sixty-three percent of the reported awards included overhead costs. For these awards, 20 percent of the total funds went for overhead. During the same period, Congress earmarked $178 million in DOT funds to 46 universities or university-related facilities; DOT had obligated about $110 million as of September 1993. DOT's planning for university research is diverse and fragmented and is not pursued through an integrated plan. In addition, although DOT has several systems to track spending on its awards, none of them provide complete or accurate information on the total number or purpose of university awards. DOT has provided limited financial oversight of awards to universities. GAO identified several cases in which DOT allowed overcharges or questionable costs that could total nearly $500,000. In addition, GAO discovered that the lack of oversight has resulted in grantee noncompliance with cost-sharing arrangements totaling almost $3 million.
