The DOE and its facility contractors operate more than 110,000 desktop computers at various locations, running commercial off-the-shelf software that includes office automation, records management, document imaging and antivirus products, the IG said in the report.

'Although the department had established several enterprise software agreements, we found that it had not adequately managed the acquisition and maintenance of desktop software computer licenses,' Friedman said.

In particular, he said that seven of 16 organizations in the department bought software through locally established agreements or contracts that were as much as 300 percent higher than those available through department-level agreements. Despite the potential for savings, enterprise agreements for common products such as security and antivirus software were not established. Friedman also said that various agencies bought encryption software licenses, paid annual maintenance fees but never used them.

'Despite pressure from the Office of Management and Budget and known best practices of other organizations, the [Energy] Department had not developed complex-wide standards for desktop software, implemented a common method for acquiring such software and did not require organizations to actively manage their inventory of existing licenses,' the IG said.

As an example, Friedman said Brookhaven National Laboratory paid between $248 and $573 per license for two separate versions of the same office automation product -- even though it was available through a department-level agreement for $176 per license. And Sandia National Laboratories paid $292 for a particular version of a popular imaging package, even though it could have been purchased through the department's agreement for only $90.