A 1987 Department of Defense (DOD) Defense Science Board study on the detection and neutralization of illegal drugs and terrorist devices, such as explosives, concluded, among other things, that better-focused R&D testing and evaluation and acquisition efforts were needed at the federal level. To address this issue, the study proposed establishing a permanent Research and Technology Group within the National Drug Policy Board, which was the predecessor to ONDCP. The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988 (P.L. 100-690) created ONDCP to better plan and coordinate federal drug control efforts and assist the federal government in overseeing those efforts. ONDCP is charged with overseeing and coordinating the drug control efforts of over 50 federal agencies and programs, consulting with and assisting state and local governments in their relations with federal agencies involved in the National Drug Control Program, and reviewing and certifying the adequacy of other federal agencies’ drug control-related budget requests. In February 1990, ONDCP created the S&T Committee to perform functions similar to those previously performed by the Research and Technology Group. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 1991 (P.L. 101-510), which amended the Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1988, established CTAC as the central U.S. counterdrug enforcement R&D organization. The act placed CTAC under the operating authority of the Director of ONDCP and required that CTAC be headed by a Chief Scientist of Counterdrug Technology. Overall, Congress expected CTAC to coordinate the National Counterdrug R&D Program to prevent duplication of efforts and ensure that, whenever possible, those efforts provided capabilities that filled overall existing technology gaps that transcended the needs of any single federal agency and that otherwise might not have been funded. Specifically, CTAC was charged with (1) identifying and defining the short-, medium-, and long-term scientific and technological needs of federal, state, and local drug enforcement agencies; (2) making a priority ranking of such needs according to fiscal and technological feasibility as part of a National Counterdrug Enforcement R&D Strategy; (3) in consultation with the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) and through interagency agreements or grants, examining addiction and rehabilitation research and the application of technology to expanding the effectiveness or availability of drug treatment; (4) overseeing and coordinating counterdrug technology initiatives with the related activities of other federal civilian and military departments; and (5) under the general authority of the ONDCP Director, submitting requests to Congress for the reprogramming or transfer of funds appropriated for counterdrug enforcement R&D. Similar to its authorizing legislation, CTAC’s mission statement sets forth its responsibilities as follows: (1) identify the short-, medium-, and long-term scientific and technological needs of federal, state, and local drug enforcement agencies; (2) develop a national counterdrug R&D strategy that validates technological needs, prioritizes such needs according to technical and fiscal feasibility, and sets forth a plan (including budget) to develop and test the highest priority technology projects; (3) implement a national counterdrug R&D program, including technology development in support of substance abuse, addiction, and rehabilitation research; and (4) coordinate counterdrug R&D activities to identify and remove unnecessary duplication. To accomplish its mission, CTAC is to (1) annually publish the Counterdrug Research and Development Blueprint Update, which, among other things, lists the scientific and technological needs of federal agencies with counterdrug missions; (2) use the S&T Committee as the principal mechanism for assisting in its coordination of counterdrug technology R&D efforts and for identifying and prioritizing technology needs and selecting otherwise unfunded R&D projects for CTAC funding; and (3) use an outreach program of regional workshops and technology symposiums to facilitate access to federal, state, and local government organizations, industry and academic scientists and engineers, and other targeted community segments. Federal counterdrug technology R&D spending for fiscal years 1992 (CTAC’s first year of operation) through 1997 totaled $3.2 billion, of which CTAC accounted for $86.5 million or about 2.7 percent. (See app. II.) According to a CTAC official, for fiscal years 1992 through 1997, CTAC distributed about $61.0 million, or about 71 percent of its total funds, for 72 counterdrug R&D projects. CTAC also spent $17.7 million for operational test-and-evaluation efforts and $4.6 million for technical and contracting agents who are to manage the projects once funded. Table 1 in appendix III shows the distribution of CTAC funding by spending category for fiscal years 1992 through 1997. In fiscal year 1992, CTAC projects were organized into three technical thrust areas: tactical technologies, nonintrusive inspection, and wide-area surveillance. In fiscal year 1993, the area of demand reduction was added as a fourth technical thrust area. As shown in table 2 of appendix III, the majority of CTAC’s R&D funds for fiscal years 1992 through 1997 were distributed on projects related to the tactical technology thrust area, followed by the demand reduction, nonintrusive inspection, and wide-area surveillance areas. As of September 30, 1997, CTAC’s professional staff in Washington, D.C., was comprised of the Chief Scientist, who is the only ONDCP employee; three civilians employed by and detailed from DOD; and three persons employed by and detailed from a Fort Huachuca contractor, which is one of CTAC’s technical/contracting agents. Fort Huachuca and the Tennessee Valley Authority, CTAC’s other technical/contracting agent, together had two full-time and three part-time employees dedicated to CTAC activities. According to the Chief Scientist, only he and two of the DOD employees were available to perform management-related functions, such as working and supporting CTAC’s interaction with the S&T Committee. The other DOD detailee served as CTAC’s budget analyst. The three contractor detailees and the five contracting agent personnel at Fort Huachuca and the Tennessee Valley Authority had specific support functions, such as handling the transfer of funds for CTAC-sponsored technology projects, and were not available to perform management-related functions. We identified several shortcomings in the design and execution of the process CTAC established to carry out its coordination of counterdrug R&D efforts as intended. The S&T Committee, whose charter has not been revised since before CTAC was created, does not reflect the committee’s current composition, responsibilities, and relationship to CTAC. Moreover, the full S&T Committee met irregularly and often was not included in the decisionmaking about which counterdrug technologies should be funded. Furthermore, CTAC did not regularly reassess the counterdrug technology needs of federal agencies to ensure that its listing was current and reflected the top priority needs of S&T Committee member agencies. Also, CTAC did not systematically consider and fund the counterdrug technology needs of state and local agencies as part of its process for selecting and funding projects, and, until recently, state and local agencies were not represented on the S&T Committee. CTAC also approved many R&D projects for funding even though they lacked comprehensive transitional plans, which are intended to help ensure that developed technologies were eventually put to use. In addition, although several agencies told us of cases in which CTAC efforts had helped them to avoid unnecessary duplicative research, CTAC was unaware of these cases because it had no system in place to determine the extent to which unnecessary duplication was identified and avoided due to CTAC’s efforts. Since 1992, CTAC has had a process and procedures in place for coordinating with the R&D community to identify and prioritize R&D needs, avoid unnecessary duplication, and select CTAC-funded R&D projects that, among other things, can help fill overall existing technology gaps and transcend the needs of any single federal agency. CTAC’s process included specific steps, criteria, and controls to help ensure that funded projects (1) addressed the needs of the federal law enforcement and demand reduction agencies and (2) provided promising technology that could be used. According to its charter and CTAC’s Chief Scientist, the S&T Committee is to be used as the principal mechanism for assisting CTAC in its coordination of counterdrug technology R&D efforts, identifying and prioritizing R&D needs, and evaluating R&D projects for CTAC to fund. For a detailed description of CTAC’s process for identifying and prioritizing technology needs and selecting projects for CTAC funding, including an overview flowchart of the process, see appendix IV. The composition and responsibilities of the S&T Committee, which was established within ONDCP before CTAC’s existence, were set forth in a February 1990 charter. According to the charter, the S&T Committee is to be composed of parallel management-level representatives from federal counterdrug R&D agencies and a representative from the state and local R&D community. The S&T Committee is to be comprised of a 7-member Executive Board, a 16-member committee, and 7 associate committee members. It also is to be organized into several working groups. The S&T Committee’s overall responsibilities are to include identifying, developing, coordinating, and facilitating achievement of the overall goals and objectives of ONDCP’s National Drug Control Strategy in the areas of drug control research, automated data processing, and telecommunications. The charter is intended to establish and clarify the S&T Committee’s role and responsibilities in helping ONDCP accomplish its goals and mission. However, the existing charter does not reflect the S&T Committee’s current composition.