Some government fleet vehicles were vandalized and stolen from a commuter parking lot frequented by National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) contractors traveling to and from the Nevada National Security Site, according to the Department of Energy inspector general.
The mischief happened prior to October 2018, when somebody told the agency watchdog that people were using vehicles leased to the Department of Energy by the General Services Administration for personal business The Inspector General’s Office wrapped up its investigation of the claims in April, then waited a couple weeks to post its report online.
Ultimately, the inspector general did not substantiate the allegation that anyone used the vehicles for personal business, according to the report. The independent overseer did substantiate the assertion that the vehicles were parked in the commuter lot, and that “five vehicles were stolen and/or vandalized resulting in approximately $35,000 in costs/fees.”
Multiple NNSA contractors use DOE-leased vehicles in the vicinity of the Nevada National Security Site: the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, managed by Lawrence Livermore National Security; the Los Alamos National Laboratory, now managed by Triad National Security, but managed prior to Nov. 1, 2018, by Los Alamos National Security; and the Sandia National Laboratories, managed by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia.
“MSTS manages the majority of Government vehicles stationed in Nevada, including vehicles for the Nevada Field Office,” according to the inspector general’s report.
Eventually, the site manager for NNSA’s Nevada Site Office told people to stop parking government vehicles in the lot, which according to the complaint filed with the inspector general was “known as a target for theft and/or vandalism.”
The Nevada site has been working with the General Services Administration to fit fleet vehicles with telematics systems that can track their movements, and read data from the vehicles onboard computers. The site started those installations in July 2019 and plans to wrap up by September 2021, according to the report.
Triad and and National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia are each installing telematics on fleet vehicles they manage near the Nevada site, according to the report. Lawrence Livermore National Security decided it would not install telematics, “due to other priorities.”
The inspector general agreed with the Nevada office that installing telematics packages on fleet vehicles should “reduce the likeliness of theft and/or vandalism” going forward, and said it was making no formal recommendations about the now-infamous parking lot serving the Nevada National Security Site.
Some vehicles, managed by Mission Support and Test Services, have already been equipped with telematics packages, so the NNSA Nevada Field Office has since July 2019 allowed them to resume parking in the lot where other vehicles were previously vandalized or stolen, the inspector general said.
