A federal employee at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s W88 Alteration 370 Federal Program Office, whose computer access was restricted, used a subcontractor’s email for five years to bypass those restrictions, according to a new watchdog report.
The employee’s National Nuclear Security Administration building access also was restricted “due to a formal inquiry by a Department of Energy program,” prompting the employees to relocate to the subcontractor’s office space, the Department of Energy Inspector General (IG) found.
“The use of the subcontractor was at the improper technical direction of a former W88 ALT 370 program official and was used as a workaround to the federal employee’s restrictions,” the IG report said. “The program official did not have contracting authority and provided the improper technical direction directly to the subcontractor, resulting in approximately $1.5 million incurred by the prime contractor over the nearly 5 years of support services received that are in question.”
IG inspectors found that if the program official had asked the appropriate NETL contracting authorities or the prime contractor if using a subcontractor to provide accommodations for the federal employee was appropriate, the arrangement likely would have been denied.
“The actions taken by the program official and the subcontractor created security risks to the department by accommodating the federal employee under formal inquiry with unescorted access to the subcontractor’s site where nuclear weapons work and classified activities were conducted,” the IG report found.
The unauthorized arrangement between the federal employee and a subcontractor who worked at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) lasted at least from January 2018 through December 2022. The subcontractor employee was found to have sent emails on the federal employee’s behalf to “communicate and follow up on technical issues related to the W88 ALT 370 program and contacted individuals to arrange meetings,” the report said.
The subcontractor employee also printed hard copies of documents for the federal employee and provided a high-level, unclassified overview of classified meetings that the subcontractor employee attended, the IG report said.
NETL is a Government-owned and operated research laboratory that, among other functions, provides technical support to the NNSA Office of Defense Programs, which includes the W88 Alteration 370 Federal Program Office. The lab has campuses in Oregon, West Virginia and Pennsylvania. The NETL subcontractor has a research support services subcontract valued at approximately $62.8 million.
“The actions taken by the Program Official and the subcontractor created security risks to the Department by accommodating the Federal Employee under formal inquiry with unescorted access to the subcontractor’s site where nuclear weapons work and classified activities were conducted,” the IG report said.
The IG made four recommendations for the NNSA and NETL to tighten its protocols for interaction and cooperation between prime contractors and subcontractors. In a written response to the report, NNSA Administrator Jill Hruby said the agency has taken action to address concerns laid out in the report. Those actions should be complete by December 31, the report said.
“NNSA also shares the auditors’ concerns regarding potential security risks from these activities and we agree that resolution has taken too long,” Hruby wrote. “We are taking action to review the information presented in the report, as well as protocols for coordinating among agency elements and will prompt resolve any remaining security concerns.”
