DOE IG Highlights Lax Oversight of HQ Lab Detail Program

Laboratory contractor employees received hundreds of thousands of dollars in per diem payments while on Intergovernment Personnel Act assignments with the Department of Energy, some for as long as six years, DOE’s Inspector General said in a report released yesterday that highlights lax oversight of the temporary detail program. The IG said during 2012, Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos paid per diem allowances exceeding $460,000 to employees on IPA assignments for more than a year while they also received relocation reimbursements. “Had the Department applied the same requirements to contractors that are applied to Federal employees, a cost-benefit analysis would have ensured that the lesser of the two costs were paid to contractors on each assignment,” the IG said.

 

The IG also said the Department incurred nearly $6 million in “excess allowances or inequitably shared costs” during 2012 at three labs examined: Livermore, Los Alamos and Oak Ridge National Laboratory. At Los Alamos and Livermore alone, $5 million was spent in 2012 on IPA assignments and was 100 percent funded by DOE, rather than a cost-sharing model required by federal guidelines. “By allowing laboratory contractor employees to spend excessive lengths of time on assignments and permitting the use of questionable hiring practices, the Department may be unable to take advantage of the knowledge and experience that IPA assignments are designed to provide and which cost the Department almost $6 million in 2012 at the three sites we reviewed,” the IG said. DOE said it agreed with the findings in the report and would take corrective actions to strengthen the IPA program.