The Department of Energy has taken care of seven of 25 priority issues identified by the Government Accountability Office in 2021 and should get to work on the rest, Congress’ investigative arm wrote in a letter to the agency.
“We are also adding eight new recommendations related to project, program, and portfolio management; contract management; and DOE’s environmental and disposal liability,” the Government Accountability Office (GAO) wrote in a letter, dated June 27, to Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm.
These recommendations bring the total number of priority recommendations to 26, the GAO said.
GAO previously reported that DOE is responsible for $516 billion of the $613 billion in environmental liability attributed to the federal government. Of that, the Office of Environmental Management is responsible for more than $400 billion, GAO said in its June 2021 update.
During the past year, GAO said DOE addressed priority issues by:
- Supporting federal reports about treating supplemental low-activity waste at the Hanford Site in Washington state.
- Publishing new program management expectations.
- Clarifying how contracting officers should review conflicts of interest questions.
- Updating a 2017 cleanup policy.
- Assessing improper payments between 2006 and 2019.
Also, the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has strengthened its contractor oversight, GAO said.
The remaining 26 priority issues fall into eight major areas and six of those involve the DOE Office of Environmental Management or the NNSA. The priority areas affecting the weapons complex include: better program and portfolio management; contract management; nuclear security modernization; environmental and disposal liability; cybersecurity and worker protections.
