Department of Energy: Mission Support Challenges Remain at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories
GAO-04-370
Published: Feb 27, 2004. Publicly Released: Mar 31, 2004.
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Highlights
The University of California (University) operates the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories for the Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA). The two research laboratories, with a combined fiscal year 2003 budget of $2.3 billion, have had problems in such mission support areas as managing projects, conducting business operations, and ensuring safe nuclear operations. GAO was asked to describe the actions taken to address mission support problems identified in 2001, as well as problems that have since emerged, and to assess the main challenges to sustaining mission support improvements.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Energy | The Secretary of Energy should direct the Administrator of NNSA to ensure through contract and other management mechanisms that the University of California and any future contractor managing Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories provide leadership, resources, and oversight to ensure effective mission support activities, including evaluating the impact of improvement actions on performance. |
Closed – Implemented
NNSA has increased its emphasis on the effectiveness of contractor mission support activities through its draft line oversight and contractor assurance system policy. NNSA also included in the fiscal year 2005 performance measures for both the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories additional requirements for mission support activities. In addition, the request for proposals for the new contract to manage the Los Alamos National Laboratory includes requirements for oversight and continuous improvement in operations or mission support.
|
| Department of Energy | The Secretary of Energy should direct the Administrator of NNSA to ensure that NNSA performance assessments at the laboratories include evaluations of the adequacy of leadership, resources, and internal controls associated with mission support activities. |
Closed – Implemented
NNSA has increased its emphasis on the effectiveness of contractor mission support activities through its draft line oversight and contractor assurance system policy. NNSA also included in the fiscal year 2005 performance measures for both the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories additional requirements for mission support activities and increased accountability for effective mission support and internal controls.
|
| Department of Energy | The Secretary of Energy should direct the Administrator of NNSA to ensure that as NNSA implements its proposed oversight and contractor assurance policy at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories, NNSA retains sufficient independent federal oversight of mission support activities to fulfill its responsibilities associated with protecting public resources and safety. |
Closed – Implemented
NNSA's draft line oversight and contractor assurance system policy increases the emphasis on contractor accountability for internal controls and mission support activities. The policy also stresses NNSA's continued responsibilities for effective oversight to ensure protection of workers, the environment, and public safety. In addition, NNSA issued a new policy letter in April 2005 that outlines the responsibilities of NNSA headquarters and field employees for oversight and evaluation of contractor performance.
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| Department of Energy | The Secretary of Energy should direct the Administrator of NNSA to include in its contract with the University of California and any future contractor at Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories a requirement that major improvement initiatives be managed consistent with the best practices of high-performing organizations, as defined in DOE Notice 125.1. |
Closed – Implemented
NNSA included in the fiscal year 2005 performance measures for both the Los Alamos and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories requirements to achieve continuous improvement in mission support activities. As part of these performance measures, NNSA specified that, for the contractor to achieve an outstanding performance rating in the area of operations evaluation and improvement, the contractor should have a fact-based systematic evaluation and improvement process in place to identify problems and take corrective action. This is consistent with DOE Notice 125.1.
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