A recently released report from the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Inspector General (IG) identifies seven significant management challenges facing the agency in fiscal 2017. They are: financial assistance and contract management; cybersecurity; environmental cleanup; nuclear waste disposal; safeguards and security; stockpile stewardship; and infrastructure modernization.
All but one of these categories were previously identified as challenges – financial assistance management was added to this year’s report because of actions DOE has taken to increase financial risk, the IG said. It noted the Government Accountability Office has given DOE’s Office of Environmental Management and its National Nuclear Security Administration a “high risk” designation due to inadequate contract and project oversight, which DOE’s top leadership is working to address. The two departmental branches represented 60 percent of its roughly $30 billion in discretionary funding in fiscal 2016, which ended on Sept. 30, the IG noted.
“As recently as 2015, the Government Accountability Office found continuing cost and schedule problems with the Office of Environmental Management and NNSA major projects but noted that the Department’s top leadership continued to be engaged and take action to address this high-risk area,” the report says. “Given the number of contracts handled by the Department and the complexity and importance of the Department’s numerous multimillion dollar projects, the area of Financial Assistance and Contract Management is a significant management challenge.”
The special report noted that past IG reports found deficiencies with DOE’s management of its unclassified cybersecurity program; its handling of aging infrastructure, such as the facilities at the Y-12 National Security Complex that put the NNSA’s mission at risk; its failure to complete a security infrastructure plan to address physical security threats; and management of the stockpile stewardship program, including problems with the implementation of enhanced project management tools for the B61-12 life-extension program.
The IG also identified technical challenges facing the Office of Environmental Management, including in constructing and operating the Waste Treatment and Immobilization Plant at the Hanford Site in Washington state. It noted the “the estimated cost of the project has tripled, while the scheduled completion date has slipped by nearly a decade.” Another challenge is nuclear waste disposal, the IG said, with problems that include delays in reopening the Waste Isolation Pilot Plant near Carlsbad, N.M, where transuranic waste operations were suspended in February 2014 following an accidental fire and later, unrelated radiation release. DOE now hopes to reopen the facility this month.
The Government Accountability Office then noted in a separate report that DOE has not established a program management policy addressing federal internal control standards for managers, such as delegation of authority. The report recommended that the secretary of energy establish a program management policy that assigns responsibilities and expectations of competence to program managers and addresses program management practices, including the development of program plans.
