NASA’s mission is to pioneer the future in space exploration, scientific discovery, and aeronautics research. To accomplish its mission, NASA procures, fabricates, and maintains significant amounts of equipment. For example, as of September 30, 2008, NASA reported that it had approximately 307,000 controlled equipment items, costing $11.5 billion. In April 2000, NASA launched the Integrated Enterprise Management Program (IEMP), which is expected to improve the efficiency of many of its financial and management functions. The IEMP system is intended to promote standardization and integration of business processes and systems across the agency, and various components have been designed and implemented since its launch in 2000. On May 19, 2008, NASA implemented the PP&E Module agencywide, which cost about $29 million, and is designed to improve its management of and provide accountability over the entire life cycle of controlled equipment. The PP&E Module replaced NASA’s legacy equipment management systems—NEMS and the NASA Property Disposal Management System (NPDMS). The module was intended to allow end users to perform such tasks as equipment searches—to identify equipment that may be available for reutilization—acceptance, rejection, and transfer. The module was designed, among other things, to allow equipment end users to compare their equipment needs with equipment located anywhere within NASA through two critical reutilization subcomponents, N-PROP and DSPL. N- PROP is a Web-based interface that allows end users to directly access the module and view equipment located at all NASA centers, while DSPL is the new disposal interface, which allows users to view equipment located in disposal warehouses agencywide. Prior to the implementation of the PP&E Module, NASA employees and contractors were limited to viewing underutilized or excess equipment physically located at their local centers. NASA anticipates annual operational cost savings as a result of implementing the PP&E Module. As part of the President’s fiscal year 2009 budget submission, NASA reported that the implementation of the PP&E Module would result in annual operational cost savings of approximately $19.6 million by eliminating manual processes and increasing the reutilization of equipment. According to NASA’s equipment management policy and procedural guidance, property management and equipment reutilization at NASA involves several key players: The Logistics Management Division, located at NASA headquarters in Washington, D.C., is part of NASA’s Office of Infrastructure and Administration and is responsible for establishing policies and procedures that govern the agency’s equipment management activities. The Logistics Management Division is also responsible for (1) assisting NASA centers in the development and operation of internal processes, procedures, and systems to ensure their compatibility with agency programs; (2) establishing necessary agency performance measures and reports on the overall implementation of equipment management programs; (3) conducting reviews and overseeing the implementation of equipment management activities; and (4) defining training requirements to ensure properly trained property personnel across the agency. Individual end users, such as scientists or engineers, have a duty to protect and conserve government property assigned to them and should not use such property, or allow its use, for other than authorized purposes. Each piece of equipment is assigned to an end user, who is responsible for ensuring that the equipment is used only in approved NASA programs and projects and notifying the property custodian when the equipment is no longer being actively used. Property custodians are designated by the director or chief for each property management area or program. Their responsibilities include maintaining records for all controlled equipment assigned to them, identifying controlled equipment no longer needed for NASA programs or projects, and coordinating its disposition with the end users. NASA division directors (or equivalent organization heads) are the primary officials responsible for equipment assigned to their organizations. This responsibility includes performing annual walk-through inspections to identify inactive equipment and ensuring that equipment no longer required for the performance of a specific NASA program or project is made available to others or properly disposed of. Supply equipment management officers are responsible for managing each centers’ equipment program, including implementing the necessary equipment control procedures to ensure proper accountability for center equipment; establishing a process to ensure that all personnel associated with the utilization of government equipment receive documented, up-to- date property end user training; ensuring that end users are aware of the requirement to identify inactive equipment and ensure its reuse or disposal; and designating property disposal officers and center equipment managers to perform screenings for equipment estimated to cost $25,000 or more. Property disposal officers are responsible for managing and screening NASA’s excess equipment inventory—equipment recorded in DSPL—prior to a NASA or contractor employee initiating a purchase request for new equipment costing $25,000 or more. The center equipment managers are responsible for ensuring each center’s compliance with the federal property management regulations to maximize equipment reutilization and to minimize procurement of new equipment. New purchase requests costing more than $25,000 are to be routed through the center equipment manager, or designee, to perform a second screening of excess equipment recorded in the PP&E Module. In addition, the center equipment manager is responsible for ensuring that equipment records are adjusted to reflect the results of all equipment inspections. To reduce the unnecessary procurement of new equipment, federal property management regulations require each executive agency to make underutilized and excess equipment available for reutilization within the agency and, if not needed, to other agencies. NASA equipment management policy and procedural guidance require centers to continuously inspect equipment under their control to ensure maximum utilization. Excess and underutilized equipment that is available for reutilization should be identified in the PP&E Module through ongoing review by equipment end users, annual walk-through inspections, and each center’s periodic physical inventories. Once a piece of equipment is determined to be excess or underutilized, NASA end users have the option to decide whether to transfer it to disposal—through the property disposal officer—or make it available to others through a transfer. If the end user elects to send the equipment to disposal, the equipment is physically transferred to the center’s disposal warehouse and made available—through DSPL—to all NASA centers for 21 days. If the equipment is not claimed by any NASA projects or programs within this time period, it is transferred to the General Services Administration (GSA) and made available to other federal and state agencies for 21 days and is donated or sold to other institutions thereafter. The PP&E Module was designed to facilitate the process of transferring excess and underutilized equipment among end users by providing transparency on all NASA-wide equipment and allowing end users to directly make excess equipment available to other end users. End users, who are not currently using a certain equipment item, may decide not to transfer it to disposal because it is still in good working condition, continues to have technological relevance, or has potential for future use within the user’s project or program area. Upon using the module to find existing equipment that may suit their needs, end users are to contact other end users to whom that equipment is assigned to determine if it is available for reutilization. If available, a direct end user to end user transfer can take place. Figure 1 shows the key steps involved in NASA’s equipment reutilization process. Equipment screening is a key part of NASA’s reutilization process and is critical to identifying controlled equipment that can be reutilized. Prior to purchasing new equipment, NASA equipment management policy and procedural guidance require NASA employees and contractors to evaluate alternative methods for meeting their equipment needs, such as utilizing existing equipment and leasing or borrowing equipment from other NASA projects or programs on a temporary basis. As such, equipment screening is a control that should prevent unnecessary new equipment purchases when equipment is on hand and available to meet the purchaser’s needs. However, users are not required to reutilize equipment identified through the screening process or to provide any justification for purchasing new equipment instead. Prior to initiating a procurement request for controlled equipment that is expected to cost $25,000 or more, NASA equipment policy and procedural guidance require the requesting office to contact the center’s property disposal officer, or designee, and request a screening of NASA’s equipment that has been transferred to disposal to determine the availability of equipment that could satisfy the requirement. If a match is not identified, a purchase request can be prepared. All such purchase requests ($25,000 or more) are to be routed through the center equipment manager, or designee, who is required to conduct a second screening of NASA’s existing equipment recorded in the PP&E Module before processing the purchase requests. The center equipment manager, property disposal officer, or their designees are required to search based on the manufacturer model and, if no items are found, optionally on the item description. As an optional screening step, NASA guidance also permits the screening of non-NASA excess equipment sites—such as GSA’s XCESS (excess equipment depository) database. For controlled equipment purchases of less than $25,000, NASA’s policy and procedural guidance encourage, but do not require, end users to use the PP&E Module to search NASA-wide for excess equipment. Figure 2 illustrates NASA’s equipment screening process. Improvements in the design of key controls associated with the PP&E Module could help NASA increase equipment reutilization and better enable it to realize cost savings. Inconsistent and unreliable descriptive information and limited information about equipments’ availability hinder NASA’s ability to effectively identify and reutilize equipment. If end users lack confidence in the reliability of the PP&E Module’s information they will be less likely to use it, thereby limiting opportunities to identify equipment available for reutilization. Inconsistent descriptions, inaccurate information on physical condition, and limited information about the equipment’s availability hamper the PP&E Module’s ability to produce equipment matches.