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Panel Reporter: Ed Helminski, Exchange Monitor Publications, Inc. (USA)
DOE Working to Improve, but Acquisitions Remain a Challenge
Dept. of Energy officials, speaking at Monday's "Hot Topics in Environmental Management" session, had
little encouragement to offer the contracting community that the upcoming round of high-profile cleanup procurements will be an improvement over recent competitions, many of which have
been plagued by delays, cancellations and protests. "I don't think we are conveying a high sense of confidence," said Deputy Assistant Secretary for Human Capital and Business Services
Jim Fiore, who earlier noted that a lack of adequate contracting staff is a major "skills gap" in EM that needs to be filled. The cleanup program has a full slate of procurements in the
works, including three at Hanford and two at Savannah River in addition to planned competitions for the interim closure of the West Valley Demonstration Project and the cleanup of the
Atlas mill tailings pile in Moab, Utah.
In recent weeks, the Office of Environmental Management has undergone a reorganization to help
improve the acquisition process, including the creation of a new deputy assistant secretary position for acquisition and project management. Among the benefits of the move is that roles
and responsibilities will be better defined, "eliminating some of the ambiguity," Fiore said. "I don't think Einstein himself could have figured out who did what" previously, he added.
Mark Frei, deputy assistant secretary for program planning and budget, said that the Office of Environmental Management also planned to establish a "core group" of personnel within the EM
Consolidated Business Center to assist with procurements. "We're making a commitment with this new organization to try to establish a process to put better resources forward," Fiore said.
He added, though, "We're actively working to make improvements, but I don't have a plan that will significantly add to the confidences."
Safety Challenges Loom
Procurement was one of several issues discussed at yesterday's panel session, which also included EM
Chief Operating Officer Ines Triay; Christine Gelles, director of the Office of Commercial Disposition Options; and Patrice Bubar, assistant secretary for corporate performance assessment
within the DOE Office of Environment, Safety and Health. In her remarks, Bubar noted several recent disturbing safety trends, including an increase this year in the number of Type B
accident investigations, as well as continued challenges in electrical safety and subcontractor safety. Regarding the latter, Bubar said that while subcontractors perform about 20 percent
of cleanup work, they account for about 40 percent of serious accidents. "This is a trend that needs to improve and over the past year it has not improved," she said. In addition, while
fewer near-miss incidents were recorded in 2005 than in 2004 and 2003, the number of "very serious" near-miss incidents increased from 126 in 2004 to 150 in 2005, according to Bubar, who
described the increase as "evidence of a serious system failure."
To help improve safety performance, the Office of Environment, Safety and Health is "trying to make
sure there's a path forward that makes sense," Bubar said, outlining several office initiatives. Among them is a new safety rule, recently published in the Federal Register, that would
require non-nuclear contractors to comply with applicable OSHA health and safety standards. The rule would also establish investigative procedures and fines of up to $70,000 per
violation, per day, for violations of non-nuclear safety requirements. The rule is set to go into effect in 2007, and over the course of this year DOE plans to hold a number of workshop
to ensure quick compliance. Bubar said, though, that the Department has no plans to accelerate implementation of the rule. "We need all the time laid out in the regulations," she said.
EM Looks to Future Liabilities
Frei, in a presentation on the Administration's FY 2007 budget request, outlined several future
budget liabilities, including D&D of the Paducah and Portsmouth gaseous diffusion plants and additional D&D activities at Oak Ridge's Y-12 section and the Los Alamos National
Laboratory. "No one in the Department has taken on that," he said, adding that the work would likely be done by EM. To that end, the office has begun working with the White House Office
of Management and Budget to set new budget targets, Frei said.
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2006 Waste Management Symposium