Nuclear Security

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the Department of Energy's (DOE) use and authorization of contractors to make original classification determinations about national security information.

GAO found that: (1) DOE granted original classification authority on a selective basis, but had granted such authority to persons in senior-level positions at facilities dealing with large volumes of classified information, including government-owned, contractor-operated (GOCO) laboratories; (2) as of May 1991, 142 persons, including over 50 contractor employees, had original classification authority; (3) 14 percent of those authorized contractor employees had top-secret level classification authority; (4) contractor employees made 3 top-secret determinations and 189 secret or confidential determinations between fiscal years 1985 and 1990, while DOE personnel made a total of 3,091 original classification determinations during that period; (5) although an executive order limited classification authority to agency heads and their subordinates, DOE believed that its long-standing unique relationship with GOCO facilities and adequate controls to review determinations justified granting such authority to contractors; (6) the National Security Council recommended that DOE reconsider its authorization policy after identifying such delegations during a 1986 site visit, but did not follow up on the recommendation during its 1988 visit; and (7) DOE did not know the extent to which it reviewed or approved contractor classification determinations. GAO believes that misclassification of information could potentially seriously impact and threaten U.S. national security interests.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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