By Greg Seigle

Global Security Newswire

The U.S. National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has been slow to overcome organizational problems and has made limited use of its authority as a semiautonomous agency within the Department of Energy, according to the General Accounting Office.  NNSA officials defended their work and said they were working out the kinks of a new organization.

The two-year-old NNSA, which supports the transition of Russian nuclear facilities and scientists to civilian roles, has made strides, said Gary Jones, GAO’s director of resources and environment.  In its task to correct long-standing problems within the Energy Department, however, the agency has yet to address important issues such as the division of responsibilities among offices within its headquarters and between headquarters and field offices, Jones said in a letter to two congressional representatives released Dec. 27.  Click here to read the GAO correspondence.

NNSA planning, programming, budgeting and evaluation processes are also lagging, said the letter to Representatives Mac Thornberry (R-Texas) and Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) of the House Armed Services Committee’s oversight panel on Energy Department reorganization. The processes might not be implemented by the 2004 budget cycle, already a year later than Congress mandated.

“We recognize that NNSA’s implementation … is an evolving process,” the GAO said. “However, other important, fundamental and long-standing issues—such as organizational roles and responsibilities, where we have previously made recommendations—remain un-addressed.

“We believe the best time to address such problems is when the new organization and systems are first being laid out and the momentum for change is at its highest,” the letter continued. “NNSA’s ability to recapture and build momentum in areas such as planning, programming and budgeting will be critical to whether it will be successful in correcting the long-standing management problems inherited from DOE.”

Officials at NNSA acknowledged the problems cited by the GAO but also noted that they encountered numerous hurdles that slowed their momentum, including the Sept. 11 terrorists attacks, a slow budget process for 2002, delayed confirmations of presidential appointments to key positions and significant institutional barriers to coordinating with other federal agencies and with various other offices in the Energy Department and its own administration.

Twice in the past year the GAO has issued reports criticizing NNSA.  Because they are busy with ongoing operations—especially the implementation of the Nuclear Cities Initiative (see GSN, Dec. 21) and the Initiatives for Proliferation Prevention, two programs designed to ease the transition of Russia’s nuclear facilities and scientists to civilian work—NNSA officials said they failed “to see the value added by [GAO’s] latest effort.”

“We are consolidating functions where we can,” Steven Black, acting director of NNSA’s Office of Nonproliferation and International Security, told Global Security Newswire during a Dec. 19 interview. “There are a number of things that have been done … We took the GAO’s good advice to find ways to consolidate functions where we could.”

In the recent GAO letter, which is based on findings discovered between November 2000 and last month, the lawmakers cited various areas in which the administration needs improvement:

*         While NNSA announced a new headquarters organization last May, the reorganization did not contain a clear definition of the roles and responsibilities of headquarters offices and did not address field office organization at all.  NNSA, GAO noted, is working to solve these shortcomings.

*         NNSA lost some momentum in 2001 as it reevaluated its efforts to create new planning processes. While the agency has decided to use processes modeled after those used by the Defense Department—ones that streamline efforts and work well when offices are fully staffed and funded—it may not have them ready in time for the 2004 budgetary cycle.  Even if these practices are implemented in time, it remains to be seen whether they will effectively handle the agency’s needs.

*         NNSA has firm plans to use only 100 of its 300 excepted service positions authorized by Congress.  The administration does not have the coherent human resources and workforce planning strategies it needs if it is to develop and maintain a well-managed workforce over the long run.

*         NNSA has determined that there is no need for it to have its own procurement regulations and has begun to address long-standing contract management problems through efforts to improve contractor oversight and program evaluation.

“While some would like to see more progress, we cannot and will not compromise the integrity nor the rigor of the procurement process for the appearance of short term change,” wrote Anthony Lane, NNSA’s associate administrator for management and administration, in response to the GAO assertions.

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