The National Nuclear Security Administration is set to withdraw the Earned Value Management System certification for Los Alamos National Laboratory because of “systemic and material deficiencies” with the system, according to a draft letter slated to be sent to acting Deputy Lab Director Paul Henry obtained by NS&D Monitor. The letter from Los Alamos Field Office Contracting Officer Sheryl Chesnutt and an accompanying memo from the Department of Energy’s Office of Acquisition and Project Management revealed that the lab’s EVMS system had repeatedly failed reviews, including a review this summer by the DOE’s APM Office that turned up 92 corrective action requests and noncompliance with 31 of 32 American National Standards Institute guidelines (one other guideline was determined to be inapplicable).
In three reviews since the lab’s EVMS system was first certified in 2009, the review team noted “repeat deficiencies” and “an increasing trend in repeat findings.” The issues included failures in defining the work scope and defining the project organizational structure to failures in planning, scheduling, budgeting, and accounting. “The Review Team determined that the LANS EVMS data is not reliable, accurate, timely, auditable, traceable, or reconcilable, and therefore, any performance Measurement Baseline would be invalid such that neither the current project status nor the forecast completion cost and schedule are determinable,” DOE APM chief Paul Bosco said in an Oct. 30 memo to NNSA Associate Administrator for Acquisition and Project Management Bob Raines and Los Alamos Field Office Contracting Officer Robert Poole. “As a result the Government cannot have confidence in any project’s reported financial position, and the Government’s ability to manage and take corrective actions has been hampered.”
Chesnutt said the lab’s plan for recertification is due by Dec. 10. “It is paramount that your EVMS achieves recertification at the earliest possible date to ensure that accurate reporting of cost and schedule performance on the mission critical capital asset projects, both planned and currently underway at the Los Alamos National Laboratory is attainable,” Chesnutt wrote. The suspension will prevent capital asset projects at the lab from proceeding beyond the Critical Decision-2 (approve performance baseline) or Critical Decision-3 phase (approve start of construction/execution.
