Federal agents assigned to transport nuclear weapons, material, and components for the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Office of Secure Transportation (OST) are not given a time frame for adjudication of their status when temporarily removed from Human Reliability Program (HRP) responsibilities, the Department of Energy (DOE) Inspector General’s Office (IG) found in a report released this week.
The federal personnel participate in the HRP, a program intended to ensure agents “meet the highest standards of reliability and physical and mental suitability,” the report said. According to the DOE, the program offers a “system of continuous evaluation” to identify personnel with access to sensitive materials who show signs of impaired judgment and reliability.
The IG identified a lack of time limits for reinstating or revoking HRP status for agents temporarily pulled from HRP duties. Agents are placed on paid administrative leave when their HRP status is temporarily removed and throughout the adjudication process, “until a final determination is made, actions that can take years to complete,” the IG found. Federal and Department of Energy regulations do not offer clear schedules for much of the HRP status revocation process, it said, confirming that there are “extensive delays in the HRP adjudication process.”
The report noted that despite efforts beginning in 2007 to rewrite federal provisions on time limits, the Department of Energy “had yet to agree on a set of standards in this area.” Some progress over the years included the development of standard operating procedures, including timeliness goals, in 2012 and 2014 for offices involved in the HRP appeals and revocation process.
The IG recommended that the department’s Office of Environment, Health, Safety, and Security – which is responsible for DOE-wide HRP policy – along with the NNSA, assess the HRP adjudication process and provide time limits on the number of days permitted for review. Both concurred and said DOE is “in the early stages of an effort to evaluate” the adjudication process.
