Department of Energy

A recent audit of government-owned property at the Rocky Flat nuclear weapons plant in Colorado has revealed nearly $30 million in missing items that range from computers to forklifts, a problem attributed to inadequate contractor management and poor Energy Department (DOE) oversight. Contrary to departmental guidance, DOE has never investigated the circumstances surrounding the missing property. Moreover, the contractor's property management system is inadequate. The plant's property tracking system database is incomplete and contains inaccurate serial numbers for some items. Inappropriate changes have been made to the database, including the deletion of entire records. Finally, the controls over how plant property is retired are inadequate. GAO found that DOE, contrary to its own regulations, has allowed the contractor to operate without written property management procedures and has not approved the contractor's property management system. In addition, DOE has not ensured timely correction of previously flagged property management weaknesses.

GAO found that: (1) DOE cannot determine the exact amount of government-owned property missing because annual inventory reviews have varied; (2) as of 1993, $12.8 million in government-owned property was missing from Rocky Flats and an additional $16.5 million could not be physically located; (3) although the contractor has not classified the additional items as missing because it believes there is documentation showing the items' disposition, it may have to reclassify some of the items as missing because the supporting documentation is incomplete; (4) DOE cannot hold anyone accountable for the missing property at the plant because it has not investigated the circumstances surrounding the missing property or pursued contractor liability; (5) the contractor's property management system contains major data and control weaknesses that render the plant vulnerable to losses and hinder its ability to determine the amount of missing property; (6) DOE oversight of the contractor's property management system is inadequate because it allows the contractor to operate without detailed written procedures for its property management activities, does not review the contractor's property management system, and does not ensure timely correction of property management weaknesses; and (7) DOE needs to strengthen its commitment to overseeing the contractor's property management system so that it can ensure that government-owned property is properly accounted for.

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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