A new inspector general’s report bashed the human resources department at the federal Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board as ineffective, inefficient, and incapable of supporting the agency’s oversight of defense-nuclear sites.
The board’s “human resources program is currently not designed and implemented to effectively support the execution of its mission,” reads a Monday report from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s inspector general (IG). The commission’s inspector general also reviews the Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board (DNFSB), which does not have its own inspector general.
The DNFSB suffers from “a lack of agency consensus and communication regarding DNFSB’s hiring practices,” and about half of the board’s senior executive service positions — something like the federal equivalent of a corporate vice president — are unfilled.
“As a result, the agency remains understaffed, which may negatively impact DNFSB’s ability to accomplish its mission,” the IG wrote. The Office of Personnel Management approved the board for just under a dozen senior executive service positions, according to the IG.
Even as it recommended the DNFSB fill these vacant executive positions, the IG warned that might not happen happen: “DNFSB’s senior leadership does not believe SES [senior executive service] positions are needed.”
The DNFSB has about 100 full-time employees on an annual budget of roughly $30 million. Board Chairman Bruce Hamilton, appointed by President Donald Trump, has attempted to reorganize the agency and cut that number to about 80 full-time employees.
Most of the Hamilton’s fellow board members approved of the reorganization, but Congress has blocked the agency from cutting staff, for now.
The DNFSB does not regulate the Department of Energy, but it may make safety recommendations about active and shuttered nuclear-weapon sites with which the secretary of energy must publicly agree or disagree. The board does not, however, have jurisdiction at Naval Nuclear sites.
