| Organization: | Office of the State Auditor |
|---|---|
| Date published: | June 12, 2025 |
Executive Summary
In accordance with Section 12 of Chapter 11 of the Massachusetts General Laws, the Office of the State Auditor has conducted a performance audit of the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (MLSC) for the period July 1, 2021 through December 31, 2023.
The purpose of this performance audit was to determine whether MLSC’s administration of the High School Apprenticeship Challenge (HSAC) program was in compliance with Section 6(c)(5) of Chapter 23I of the General Laws. Per MLSC’s website, the HSAC program is designed to promote equitable access to career opportunities by providing internships to high school students from underrepresented and low-income communities across the Commonwealth. By placing these interns at life science companies and research institutions, the program aims to foster diversity, inclusion, and pathways to success in the life science sector.
We also determined whether the annual report that MLSC is required to submit to the House and Senate Committees on Ways and Means was in compliance with Section 6(c)(9) of Chapter 23I of the General Laws. The annual report is used by the members of the House and Senate Committees on Ways and Means to ensure that MLSC is expanding life science–related employment opportunities in the Commonwealth and promoting health-related innovations by supporting and stimulating research and development, manufacturing, and commercialization in the life sciences.
Additionally, we determined whether MLSC’s website adhered to the accessibility standards established by the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0 for user accessibility, keyboard accessibility, navigation accessibility, language, error identification, and color accessibility. WCAG ensures that all users, regardless of ability, can access the content and functions of MLSC’s website.
Below is a summary of our findings, the effects of those findings, and our recommendations, with links to each page listed.
| Finding 1 | MLSC did not ensure that all interns who participated in the HSAC were eligible to do so. |
| Effect | The HSAC exists to fund paid internships for underrepresented and low-income high school students in Massachusetts. The eligibility criteria set by MLSC are meant to ensure that only underrepresented and low-income students participate in the HSAC program. Without uniform enforcement of these requirements, students who do not meet the criteria (and therefore are not likely to be part of the population of underrepresented and low-income high school students) can benefit from the HSAC program. This consumes resources that are dedicated to the students this program is intended to serve, potentially displacing eligible students in order to serve ineligible ones. |
| Recommendations |
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| Finding 2 | MLSC did not ensure that all annual reports were submitted in a timely manner. |
| Effect | If MLSC does not submit its annual reports to the House and Senate Committees on Ways and Means on time, then these governing bodies may not have the information necessary to adequately review MLSC’s funding and activities for the preceding year. This may impact their funding decisions and result in the underfunding or overfunding of key programs that serve the Commonwealth and its underrepresented and low-income residents. Also, this could negatively affect MLSC’s achieving its mission. |
| Recommendation | MLSC should develop and implement policies and procedures, including a monitoring component, to ensure that annual reports are delivered no later than the December 1 deadline. |
| Finding 3 | MLSC’s website was not fully accessible for all Massachusetts residents and users. |
| Effect | Broken or faulty hyperlinks limit users from having equitable access to critical information and key online services offered by MLSC. Broken or faulty hyperlinks also increase the likelihood that users may either access outdated or incorrect information or be directed to webpages that no longer exist. Also, if MLSC’s website does not provide mechanisms to skip repeated content, then users who navigate sequentially through webpages are forced to navigate through repeated content every time a webpage is loaded. This increases the time needed to reach the desired information on a webpage and may, for users who have motor impairments, make the task of navigating through repeated content cumbersome and difficult. |
| Recommendation | MLSC should review its webpages to ensure that all hyperlinks lead to related information and provide equitable access to critical MLSC-offered information and services. In addition, MLSC should work with its website accessibility vendor to add a mechanism to its website that allows users to skip repeated content. |
In addition to the conclusions we reached regarding our audit objectives, we also identified issues not specifically addressed by our objectives. For more information, see Other Matters.
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Downloads
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Open PDF file, 1.1 MB, Audit Report - Massachusetts Life Sciences Center (English, PDF 1.1 MB)