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Stung by revelations that funds for the Superconducting Supercollider were
spent on tropical plants and Christmas parties, the US energy secretary is
considering whether to sack the university consortium that is building the
giant particle accelerator.

‘I will not tolerate waste and mismanagement in the supercollider or any
other programme of the Department of Energy,’ Hazel O’Leary declared before
a congressional committee last week. ‘Specific management deficiencies have
been identified in the supercollider project. They are not acceptable, and I
will address them directly and forcefully.’

O’Leary’s outrage is not just motivated by concern for the public purse. The
Clinton administration is trying to reverse a decision by the House of
Representatives to cut off funding for the project. Last month, the house
voted by 280 to 141 to axe the project – three days after the
supercollider’s opponents leaked the findings of a government audit which
details a string of financial abuses.

The collider, being built in Waxahachie, Texas, is expected to cost at least
$11 billion. The audit concluded that $216 million of the
money spent on the project between 1989 and 1992 – was ‘unnecessary,
excessive or represented unreasonable cost growth’. The fate of another
$174 million was too poorly documented to know whether it was
justified.

Perhaps more politically damaging, the audit also revealed that the
Universities Research Association (URA) – a consortium of 80 universities in
the US, Canada and Japan which won the contract from the energy department
to build and operate the collider – had spent $764 000 on
‘extravagances’ such as Christmas parties and cards, alcohol, meals, flowers
and decorative potted plants.

O’Leary told the hearing that the URA has reimbursed the government for the
costs of the Christmas parties and cards, and that the consortium will not
submit any further bills for flowers and tropical plants.

‘While these issues are important, they are only symptoms of a more basic
problem,’ said O’Leary. The government must be able to trust the ‘judgment
and capability’ of its contractor, she said.

Clearly, the URA thinks it should still be trusted. ‘All technical
milestones in the project have been met,’ says John Toll, president of the
consortium.

O’Leary will decide within 30 days whether to cancel the contract with the
URA or alter it so that the government can scrutinise spending more closely.
However, if O’Leary cancels the contract, she may find no one else wants to
continue the project. When the contract was up for grabs the first time
round, in 1988, the URA, which also operates the Fermilab particle
accelerator near Chicago, was the only group to bid for it.