PCCI Completes Independent Laboratory Oversight Services for the USCG

PCCI has just completed all work on a task order under our GSA OASIS-SB contract issued by the U.S. Coast Guard (USCG) to assess current practices and various options for conducting oversight of the Guard Guard’s “accepted independent laboratories” and other independent laboratories.

The USCG relies on independent laboratories to test certain categories of marine equipment related to life safety and environmental protection, and has had a program in place for many years to provide oversight of the laboratories that test these critical categories of equipment.  The USCG desired a review of their oversight program, to include the review and analyses of other third-party oversight programs and methods and recommendations for possibly streamlining or improving the USCG’s existing program and procedures.

Over the course of one year, PCCI performed six major tasks under this effort.  First, PCCI reviewed 94 USCG regulations/Approval Series to understand the existing Coast Guard oversight program.  Next, PCCI interviewed selected laboratories to assess their staffing, qualifications, accreditation, and internal oversight procedures.  For the third task, PCCI reviewed existing National and International third-party laboratory oversight schemes.  PCCI then investigated methods for prioritizing oversight of USCG independent laboratories and then developed a risk-based methodology to rank regulatory series, and thus the associated testing or inspecting laboratories, for oversight.  As a final task, PCCI provided Conclusions and Recommendations to the USCG for conducting oversight in the future.  The tasking was completed on time and within budget.