Despite some obstacles, such as the slow pace of approval of new security clearances, Consolidated Nuclear Security is more than halfway to its goal of hiring 1,150 employees in fiscal 2016.
CNS is the National Nuclear Security Administration’s managing contractor at two key nuclear weapons facilities: the Y-12 National Security Complex in Tennessee and the Pantex Plant in Texas.
Since Oct. 1, the start of the fiscal year, CNS has hired more than 650 employees, a contractor spokeswoman confirmed. Ellen Boatner said there have been more than 350 new hires at Y-12 and more than 300 at Pantex to handle increased workloads, including additional dismantlement of retired weapons parts.
“More than 650 people to date have accepted offers from CNS this fiscal year,” Boatner said via email. “We are continuing hiring efforts in order to have the necessary personnel on board to meet mission requirements.”
Accomplishing projects, particularly at Y-12, has been made a little more difficult because some of the new hires don’t yet have security clearances. In certain cases, obtaining a new clearance has taken a year or more.
Given the situation, Y-12 has taken cleared workers from other duties and used them as escorts for uncleared employees on high-priority projects in the plant’s Protected Area.
“We are supplementing our subcontractor escort pool with qualified Y-12 employees in order to accomplish the maximum amount of funded projects possible for this fiscal year,” Boatner said.
CNS is reportedly concerned that appropriated funds for some projects may be returned to the Treasury Department if the money isn’t spent by the end of this budget year, and that’s why greater efforts are being made to complete the work in a timely fashion.
Tying into all of these issues is Consolidated Nuclear Security’s efforts to resolve a “funding imbalance,” whereby it was spending too much federal money on activities funded with overhead or indirect funds and less-than-projected amounts on direct-funded mission work. The contractor did not provide details on how that imbalance is being dealt with, but in a statement said, “CNS is executing to the plan that was put in place to address the budget imbalance.”
The NNSA earlier said it hoped to have the issue resolved by the end of the fiscal year.
According to Consolidated Nuclear Security, hiring more people to increase production at the weapons plants has affected the cost ratios. Many new employees are still waiting on their security clearances, and they can’t do production work or be charged to direct-funding accounts until they are approved.
“Since the clearance process is now taking much longer than originally anticipated and the problem will not be resolved anytime soon, this clearly impacts our situation,” CNS President and CEO Morgan Smith said earlier this year.
Another contributing factor has been the contractor’s aggressive efforts to clean up the old sites, Smith said, noting that much of that work is done with indirect funds.
“While this is positive and necessary, it also has an adverse impact from a ratio perspective,” Smith said.
The contractor’s leadership team may put some indirect-funded projects on hold and move additional personnel from indirect- to direct-funded work “where we have the right skills mix and work scope,” he said.
