Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
5/16/2014
Efficiencies outlined in a key National Nuclear Security Administration report to Congress don’t adequately assess opportunities for cost savings, according to a Government Accountability Office report released late this week. The GAO analysis criticizes the November 2013 NNSA report, which outlines seven opportunities for efficiencies, for being vague and questions the feasibility of several of the potential efficiencies. The report was required by Congress in the Fiscal Year 2012 Defense Authorization Act. “It is not clear whether cost savings will result because NNSA did not assess how these opportunities would create savings, how much could be saved, and in what time frame,” the GAO said. The NNSA report to Congress discusses efficiency opportunities that could arise from several initiatives, including:
— Creating the Office of Acquisition and Project Management in 2011;
— Establishing the Office of Infrastructure and Operations in 2013;
— Consolidating the management of Y-12 and Pantex;
— Refurbishing nuclear weapons research and development facilities;
— Improved planning efforts for high energy density activities;
— Building a new, smaller Kansas City Plant; and
— Building a new Uranium Processing Facility.
The GAO has previously raised questions about the consolidation of the Y-12 and Pantex management and operating contracts and the capabilities provided by the Uranium Processing Facility planned for Y-12 (which is in the process of being scaled back). “Without a sound methodology for assessing efficiency opportunities—a methodology that includes the basis of any assumptions included in the savings estimates, an assessment of the reliability of data used to develop the estimate, and verification or validation of the accuracy of savings calculations performed, as well as a process for tracking actual savings—NNSA cannot provide reasonable assurance that the efficiency opportunities it has identified will result in savings,” the GAO said.
