GAO report calls on NNSA and EM to make improvements, highlights progress made

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recently released a report calling on the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Office of Environmental Management (EM) to “improve oversight of contractors and incorporate program and project management best practices.”

GAO rates NNSA and EM separately, based on several criteria

Since 1990, GAO has designated DOE’s contract management as a “high-risk area,” which is categorized by programs that are “vulnerable to waste, fraud, abuse, or mismanagement, or in need of transformation.” GAO has since narrowed the focus of DOE’s high-risk designation to NNSA’s and EM’s contracts and major projects with an estimated cost of $750 million or greater “to acknowledge progress NNSA and EM have made in managing nonmajor projects.”

In a change from its last report, GAO now rates the programs separately, though both remain under the high-risk area. The report ranks the programs based on the management of contracts and projects through several criteria: leadership commitment, capacity, action plan, monitoring, and demonstrated progress.

According to the report, “Since 2019, both NNSA and EM have taken actions to improve their capacities for managing their contracts and projects.” However, several of the criteria remain unchanged. The progress of each criteria for both NNSA and EM are listed below; detailed descriptions may be found on the GAO website. All language is from the report.

Contract and Project Management for NNSA

Since 2019, NNSA has improved its capacity to manage contracts and projects.

Leadership commitment: met. NNSA has continued to show leadership commitment to improving contract and project management.

Capacity: partially met. NNSA has taken some steps to improve its capacity to oversee and manage its contracts, projects, and programs and has progressed from not met to partially met.

Action plan: partially met. NNSA has taken some actions to develop an action plan to address contract, project, and program management issues.

Monitoring: partially met. Since 2019, NNSA has continued to address contract performance that does not meet expectations.

Demonstrated progress: partially met. NNSA improved its collection of financial information across programs, projects, and contractors.

Contract and Project Management for EM

Since 2019, EM has taken steps to improve capacity but needs to follow through on its actions related to leadership commitment.

Leadership commitment: partially met. EM’s leadership has taken notable actions to demonstrate commitment to improving its contract and project management. However, because these actions were taken over the last few months and are still being implemented, it is too early to evaluate the extent to which these actions address long-standing contract and project management challenges.

Capacity: partially met. EM has taken some steps to address gaps in its ability to effectively manage contracts and projects and has progressed from not met to partially met on this criterion.

Action plan: partially met. It is too early for [GAO] to evaluate the effectiveness of actions, such as implementing the new contracting model, as it has been in place for a short time and has only been applied to a small number of contracts. Furthermore, EM’s efforts to address the root causes of its long-standing contract and project management challenges contain gaps.

Monitoring: partially met. EM has instituted annual program reviews and begun examining the consistency of expectations in its contracts. However, EM continues to face challenges monitoring the effectiveness of its actions to address contract and project management challenges.

Demonstrated progress: partially met. EM has made progress at some sites and is at or near completion for several important projects.