GAO urges DOE to define and standardize contractor assurance system evaluations

The Government Accountability Office found that three Department of Energy Office of Environmental Management field offices assessed contractor assurance system (CAS) effectiveness without defining effectiveness or establishing evaluation criteria. The lack of clear definitions left the basis for each effectiveness determination unclear and highlighted recurring performance issues that weakened the reliability of the assessments.

At the Hanford field office, the contractor was deemed effective despite poor work planning and conduct of operations that prompted a formal corrective-action request. Review of issues from January 2022 through October 2023 showed the contractor improperly closed and insufficiently documented nearly 40 percent of sampled issues at the two highest significance levels. The Idaho field office also rated its contractor effective, yet reported a pattern of conduct-of-operations and maintenance-related abnormal events and 15 radiological events over an eight-month period that placed personnel at risk of overexposure. Los Alamos did not determine effectiveness, citing a breakdown in the contractor's training and qualification program in 2023 that led to a stop-work order and a 90-day delay to nuclear waste disposal and remediation.

GAO issued four recommendations to the Assistant Secretary of Environmental Management: develop a process that defines CAS effectiveness and sets specific, measurable evaluation criteria; document how CAS information will be used to tailor a risk-informed oversight program, including standardizing terms and metrics; design oversight assessment schedules for field offices to prioritize feedback on greatest risks; and employ contract mechanisms to communicate clear performance expectations and consequences for CAS shortcomings. The Department of Energy concurred with all recommendations.

The review was mandated by Senate Report 118-58, accompanying the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024, which directed GAO to examine EM's oversight of contractor assurance systems. GAO's methodology included analysis of EM and contractor documents, a site visit, and interviews with DOE officials and contractors, focusing on three contracts selected for their value and purpose.