August 7, 1998

Architect and Engineering Costs at Los Alamos and Sandia National Laboratories

The 1993 National Performance Review Report recommended performance measurement and benchmarking against industry standards as tools to help improve Government operations. This recommendation was one of the bases for the Department's development of its Improvement Plan for Reducing Architect-Engineering Costs. This plan directed operations offices to manage to a standard architect and engineering (A-E) cost as a percentage of construction. Based on this initiative, the objective of our audit was to determine whether A-E costs at Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos) and Sandia National Laboratories (Sandia) were reasonable in comparison with industry standards actors.