STUDY SUGGESTS DOING AWAY WITH LAB AWARD FEE, EMPHASIZING AWARD TERMS

摘要

Among the most surprising, and most likely controversial,nrecommendations from a just-released National Academynof Public Administration report on Department of Energynnational laboratories is a suggestion that award fees benkilled off for lab contractors. The recommendation comesnin a 99-page report released late last week on the state ofnlab management that was mandated by Congress, andnwhile some of the recommendations are more conventional,nlike the suggestion that DOE needs to be morenstrategic in how it manages its labs, a recommendation tondo away with award fees in favor of fixed fees andnaward-term incentives is sure to be a head-turner amongnindustry. “The relatively small size of the available awardnfee; the expectation that most of it will always be awardedn(absent a major performance breakdown); and the fact thatnthe labs generally place more importance on publishednscores, contract extensions, and obtaining more ongoingnwork, render the award fee a relatively weak factor innaccountability and motivation,” the NAPA panel wrote.