INVESTIGATION FINDS FALSIFIED RECORDS AT PORTSMOUTH

Fourteen workers at the Portsmouth site have been fired after an investigation discovered falsified records associated with radiation detectors, WC Monitor has learned. Concerns over the falsified records were first raised in late April, and the site’s D&D contractor, Fluor-B&W Portsmouth, LLC, completed its investigation late last week. The matter is also under investigation by the Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General. “In late April, Fluor-B&W workers identified that a number of data entries documenting daily performance tests on hand-held radiological monitors had been inappropriately altered. FBP contacted DOE and, as is standard practice, DOE contacted the Office of the Inspector General, the internal investigation arm of the DOE,” Tim Echelard, a spokesman for the DOE Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office said in a written response yesterday.

FBP’s investigation found that only a “small” number of alterations had been performed, FBP Site Project Director Dennis Carr said in a message to employees yesterday. “The issue identified by workers, and quickly confirmed, indicates that project records were retrieved and deliberately altered by employees and subcontract personnel,” Carr said. “The number of alternations were found to be small in number (approximately 25 discrete data point entries) and easily discernible. Earlier this week we took the employee actions we deemed appropriate given the severity of the issue.” Carr also told FBP employees, “Intentional alteration of federal records is not only a breach of our company’s ethics policy and a level 1 violation of our disciplinary policy, but could carry with it serious legal and/or contractual consequences for the involved individuals and the company.”