Improving Contract Administration and Project Management

DOE—the largest contracting agency in the federal government after the Department of Defense—relies primarily on contractors to carry out its diverse missions and operate its laboratories and other facilities.

• About 90 percent of DOE's budget, or over $22 billion annually, is spent on contracts

In 1990, GAO designated DOE contact administration and project management as a high-risk area because of DOE's record of both inadequate management and oversight of contractors and failure to hold contractors accountable. DOE has recently completed a root cause analysis to better understand the underlying weaknesses in its contract and project management and developed a corrective action plan and performance measures to assess progress. However, two major program elements within DOE—the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and the Office of Environmental Management (EM)—account for the majority of DOE's budget and continue to experience significant problems on major projects. Therefore, in the January 2009 high-risk update, we narrowed the focus of the high-risk area to emphasize these two program elements that continue to experience problems.

• For 12 major construction projects with total costs of about $27 billion (10 of which were NNSA or EM projects) 9 exceeded original cost or schedule estimates, principally because of ineffective DOE project oversight and poor contractor management. Cost increases on these projects ranged from $79 million to $7.9 billion, with schedule delays ranging from 9 months to more than 11 years.
  Highlights of GAO-07-336 (PDF)

^ Back to topWhat Needs to Be Done

To strengthen DOE's contract and project management, DOE needs to

• ensure that it has the needed people and resources in place to solve problems;
• ensure that its solutions to address root causes of contract and project management weaknesses are independently validated for their effectiveness and sustainability; and
• demonstrate improved performance on major projects, especially for those managed by the National Nuclear Security Administration and the Office of Environmental Management.
  Highlights of GAO-09-271 (PDF)

^ Back to topKey Reports

Nuclear Waste

National Nuclear Security Administration

Los Alamos National Laboratory

Department of Energy

Department of Energy

Department of Energy

Department of Energy

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