In February 2009, the Office of Inspector General received a letter from Congressman
Mark Steven Kirk of Illinois, which included constituent allegations that an exclusive
technology licensing agreement by Argonne National Laboratory was tainted by
inadequate competition, conflicts of interest, and other improprieties. The technology in
question was for the Program for Response Options and Technology Enhancements for
Chemical/Biological Terrorism, commonly referred to as PROTECT. Because of the
importance of the Department of Energy's technology transfer program, especially as
implementation of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act matures, we reviewed
selected aspects of the licensing process for PROTECT to determine whether the
allegations had merit. In summary, under the facts developed during our review, it was
understandable that interested parties concluded that there was a conflict of interest in
this matter and that Argonne may have provided the successful licensee with an unfair
advantage. In part, this was consistent with aspects of the complaint from Congressman
Kirk's constituent.
