The Government Accountability Office is urging the Department of Energy to provide more details on how its nuclear weapons and cleanup programs handle federal funds carried over from prior-year budgets.
At the end of fiscal 2021 DOE’s National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) had about $10.9 billion in total carryover balances and the Office of Environmental Management (EM) had about $3.2 billion, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in highlights of a new report released this week.
The GAO has been looking at the issue for years and said less than 2% of the $14.2 billion carried over in the DOE weapons complex was appropriated more than 5 years ago, “indicating that EM and NNSA have generally ensured that older funds were spent before newer funds.”
Most funds appropriated to NNSA and EM remain available for obligation “until they are expended, or costed,” GAO wrote. The bigger issue is the “un-costed” on unspent balances, amounting to a combined $3.5 billion for NNSA and EM, mostly for line-item constructed projects.
Factors such as continuing budget resolutions or larger-than-requested appropriations can explain some excess balances, GAO said in its report. But sometimes these excess funds can be due to “unanticipated changes in work scope or program execution challenges or delays,” GAO said.
Upon occasion, NNSA and EM sometimes “reprogram” funds to areas of more immediate need, or reduce future year budget requests, GAO said.
