Department of Energy: The Property Management System at the Rocky Flats Plant Is Inadequate
RCED-94-77
Published: Mar 01, 1994. Publicly Released: Mar 03, 1994.
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Highlights
Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the extent of property losses at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Rocky Flats Plant, focusing on: (1) the amount of property missing; (2) the adequacy of the onsite contractor's property management system; and (3) whether DOE has been providing effective oversight of the property management system.
Recommendations
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Energy | To improve property management at the Rocky Flats Plant, the Secretary of Energy should order an investigation, in accordance with DOE guidance, of missing plant property and determine, among other things, what happened to the missing property. Such an investigation can then be used to determine whether the contractor could be deemed liable in accordance with the terms of the contract. |
DOE/Rocky Flats' General Counsel determined there were no facts to support negligence or willful misconduct on the part of the contractor for property losses at Rocky Flats. Because of that, the DOE/Rocky Flats contracting officer made the decision not to pursue the issue.
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| Department of Energy | To improve the contractor's property management system and ensure that the plant's database accurately reflects the government-owned property at the plant, the Secretary of Energy should require the contractor to undertake, to the extent practical, a study of historical records at the plant to identify and include all appropriate property into the plant's property database, and correct database inaccuracies as necessary. |
The contractor has completed a review of historical records and databases and added 5,782 items, valued at $16.5 million, to the property records. The contractor has also established a task force to identify necessary enhancements to the property database.
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| Department of Energy | To improve the contractor's property management system and ensure that the plant's database accurately reflects the government-owned property at the plant, the Secretary of Energy should require the contractor to revise, with DOE guidance, the criteria at the plant for what should be in the database so that all sensitive equipment is included in the database. Furthermore, the 2-year useful life criteria that exempts certain equipment should be dropped except in special cases. |
The contractor has issued a revised list of items that will be controlled as sensitive property. This list was approved by the Rocky Flats Field Office on May 25, 1994. The contractor has a new procedure in place for reviewing and recertifying determinations made regarding useful service life and capitalization of questionable items, including detectors and boroscopes.
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| Department of Energy | To improve the contractor's property management system and ensure that the plant's database accurately reflects the government-owned property at the plant, the Secretary of Energy should require the contractor to institute system-level edits into the system to limit and prevent unauthorized access. Such edits would also help prevent errors from entering the system. |
The contractor has acquired a new property management database system that contains the necessary edits to limit and prevent unauthorized access.
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| Department of Energy | To improve the contractor's property management system and ensure that the plant's database accurately reflects the government-owned property at the plant, the Secretary of Energy should require the contractor to develop guidance specifying the roles and responsibilities of property management staff in retiring property. |
The contractor has revised its procedures for the retirement of personal property and these procedures have been reviewed and approved by the Rocky Flats Field Office.
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| Department of Energy | To improve DOE oversight of property management at the Rocky Flats Plant, the Secretary of Energy should direct DOE Rocky Flats management to place a higher priority on overseeing property management activities at the plant. |
DOE has established a task force to identify short- and long-term oversight improvements. The Rocky Flats Office has hired two specialists and is recruiting a third one to assist in performing oversight of the contractor.
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| Department of Energy | To improve DOE oversight of property management at the Rocky Flats Plant, the Secretary of Energy should direct DOE Rocky Flats management to require the contractor to: (1) immediately develop written procedures for its property management system; (2) submit its property management system to DOE for review and approval; and (3) complete corrective action on previously identified contractor property management deficiencies. |
DOE has hired a new Rocky Flats Plant contractor. The contractor intends to have an approved property management system in place by the end of calendar year 1996.
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