The ethics involved in science and technology spending at the Department of Homeland Security must improve, says a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). According to the report, a potential conflict of interest may arise, given that many of the various portfolio managers charged with managing the different Science and Technology (S&T) portfolios were former experts from national laboratories. National laboratories received a portion of the S&T funds.

The GAO found that the role of the portfolio managers was never finalized and that the S&T directorate does not require documentation of how determinations are made about where research and development projects and funds are directed. In addition, it was discovered that the portfolio managers were not required to attend ethics training specific to their jobs, but were instead given the same generic ethics training that every employee at Homeland Security was required to take. @ Read the full report [1]at SM Online.