Oversight of contractors and environmental remediation remain at the forefront of the U.S. Department of Energy’s management challenges for fiscal 2020, according to a Nov. 15 special report from DOE’s Office of Inspector General.
Other major concerns include nuclear waste management, cybersecurity, safeguards and security of DOE installations, civilian stewardship of the U.S. nuclear arsenal, and modernization of infrastructure, the IG said in the 25-page document for the budget year that began Oct. 1.
The Energy Department is the No. 1 user of contractors in the federal government, with more than 14,000 awards worth over $25 billion as of September.
Various studies since 1990, by both the IG and the Government Accountability Office, have raised concerns about poor contract oversight and project management. “We continue to believe the area of Contract Oversight,” including subcontractors, remains a challenge for DOE, the IG said.
Among the issues is DOE prime contractors failing to properly audit subcontractors to help prevent potential waste or fraud. Such examples of inadequate agency oversight of vendors can leave the government paying for unneeded costs, the IG said.
The report specifically cites the Idaho National Laboratory manager Battelle Energy Alliance, for its own laboratory audits, and Bechtel for failing to fully audit its subcontractors for the $17 billion Waste Treatment Plant it is building at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
Spending by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management to remediate the nation’s Manhattan Project and Cold War nuclear legacy also remains a concern, the IG said. Despite spending $48 billion over the last eight years, the Energy Department’s environmental liability rose to $494 billion in fiscal 2018, an increase of $110 billion just from fiscal 2017, mostly because of higher cost estimates for Hanford.
The Office of Environmental Management in October 2018 increased the lifetime cleanup estimate for Hanford by $82 billion, to $242 billion, the inspector general noted. Half of the department’s environmental liability is traced to either Hanford or the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
