Lawrence Livermore Laboratory has none of the systemic business problems that plagued its sister lab and ultimately doomed the University of California to having to compete to continue running Los Alamos, according to a new report.

A review by the accounting firm Ernst & Young found just small fixes are needed in Livermore's business systems, which manage millions of dollars a year and thousands of transactions. UC commissioned the report at the request of lab director Michael Anastasio.

"We call this a yawn, but we're thrilled," said Anne Broome, UC's vice president for financial management. "The important thing to come out of it is that there are no material weaknesses in the systems" covered by the review.

These findings come at a time when the lab is plagued by management problems in its security area. A high-level group from the National Nuclear Security Administration is examining whether it should take over security, after revelations of weeklong delays in reporting the loss of an electronic key card and a set of keys.

The lab has placed three employees on a two-week "investigatory leave" in that review: safeguards and security director Joe Krueger, protective forces division leader Eric Steele and James Winters, a mid-level security manager.

The report reviewing the lab's business practices included two months of observations by a 10-person team. Their review included the lab's procurement and property management systems, as well as the lab-issued credit cards that caused so many problems at Los Alamos.

At Los Alamos, the lab's business was run from four computer systems, including one whose parts were so old they could be found only at auctions, Broome said. At Livermore, their business was run on one Oracle-based system, which made problems easier to track.

A few examples of the problem the accounting team found include changing how they track damaged property and reviewing how quickly managers are notified once a purchase is made.

"A lot of these were little system fixes," Broome said.

Currently, UC is working to replace the computer system at Los Alamos, and is hiring a headhunter to recruit a chief financial officer and other top business officials.

Lab spokeswoman Susan Houghton said they are working to implement the report's recommended changes, but they are happy with its overall findings.

"We believed all along that we had a good system in place," she said.