I've been thinking about this a bit more. It is interesting that the DOE IG actually stayed focused on this issue long enough to get a report out on the KSL/LANL overcharges. To date, DOE and NNSA have been quite protective of their new military industrial partner. Since LANS took over, DOE and NNSA have gone out of their way to ensure that the new LLC's LANL annual award fee was protected. Even the repeated security and safety incidents of the past 12 months were not enough to prompt the IG to do something as unfriendly as to produce an inspection report.
But after consideration, I now believe that producing the report is DOE's way of having 'demonstrated their commitment' to 'fixing' the problem. In other words, they've now done their part -- they wrote a report. I suspect that Congress won't even take the usual next step of scheduling yet another "special hearing" complete with agenda tailored to provide a few Senators and Congressmen with a couple of choice sound bites as they beat up on Anastasio. What would be the point? They've done this so many times recently that the novelty has worn off.
The ass-covering activities aren't over yet, though, not by any means. We still have to go through the pro-forma fire drill in which LANS publicly beats up on KSL, imposes new job estimation procedures, adds additional management approval layers for any work to be done, etc. etc. etc.
The bottom line is that I hope you enjoyed reading the IG's report, because that is the only satisfaction you are going to get from having this latest bit of LANL SOP brought into the public view.
I'm still looking for a taker on my bet, btw.
-Gus
Come on Gussy. We may not be the best and the brightest, but we sure can make up some bullshit about priors and probability distributions. So you cannot seriously hoppe that anyone take your bet for a lousy 1:1 odds - or whatever odds you hoped for. At least, after I got RIF'ed, I would spend some weeks on Fiji after I won this bet (not seriously).
ReplyDeleteIt's a cold, cruel world out here, 9:16. 1:1 odds is what I'm looking for.
ReplyDelete-Gus
Gussie,
ReplyDeleteI will give you 1:1 odds that you can buy the Pentagon for $3.50. ;-)?
Deal or no deal?
$3:50 is about the price of a decent beer: deal. At least someone will come out a winner...
ReplyDelete-Gus
Let me know when you have the deed for the Pentagon and have spent $3.50 to get it.
ReplyDeleteI will buy the beers.
Notice how fast the KSL corruption story is dieing out? Soon enough it will be completely gone and KSL can go back to shaking down LANL operations for ill-gained cash.
ReplyDeleteNothing every changes for the better at this laboratory. Nothing.
It should have been apparent from June, 2005 that the fix was in. As you say, Gussie, DOE and NNSA now have the military industrial partner that they wanted for running LANL. Efficiency, cost savings, science, WFO are not even in the top 10 on the list of what's important. What is important is that DOE and NNSA now have a tame contractor who will do whatever they are told to do. And what they want LANS to do is to turn LANL into plutonium pit production facility.
ReplyDeleteAs the previous comment notes, look how fast the KSL corruption story is fading away. Nobody cares what happens at LANL, and we might as well just get used to that.
OK Gussie,
ReplyDeleteDon't pull a LANS or TCP1 on us.
Make a bet with reasonable odds.
Sorry, 5:47PM,
ReplyDeleteI'm not going to risk my UC retirement on a sucker bet...
Hey, what more do you want? The DOE IG wrote a report highlighting a pattern of chronic financial corruption at LANL. That should be all that is needed to ensure that there will be some real substantive action to clean up the mess, shouldn't it?
Don't answer that.
-Gus
Gus: Give it up. Nobody at LANL is going to fade your bet. You might try some of the DOE folks.
ReplyDelete"Notice how fast the KSL corruption story is dieing out?"
ReplyDeleteThat's becuz LANS needs this to go away quick b4 peeps start focusing on the recharge activities going on within LANS. 40 mil is peanutz compared to other activities!
But what is KSL's mission? A question I have pondered for some time.
ReplyDeleteNow it can be told! KSL's mission is to plant "Reserved for Government Vehicle" signs on all the most desireable parking places so the poor boys don't have to walk more than twenty feet to their "jobs." Time was that the KSL trucks parked in the yard behind the crafts building - now they get front-row reserved parking places everywhere they go.
It must be because their time is so valuable. Or is it because they are the ones who put up the signs?
I think you're right, 5:14. I was kind of hoping to sucker one of the more 'theoretical' types into it. You know -- a T Division theorist or the like, but no takers. Same goes for DOE, btw. They visit here numerous times a day and yet none of them have taken me up on the bet either.
ReplyDeleteOh, well, it was worth a try.
-Gus
LANS is on top of the problem, so no one needs to worry. They're going to have KSL change their name to LSK after January 1st. This will completely fool both DOE and the media.
ReplyDeleteThey've also fixed the KSL funding problems by giving KSL workers new authority to shake down any geeky looking staff members in the LANL hallways and steal their wallets as a means to help keep the KSL workforce fully employed.
Here is a quote straight from the IGs report. This would be laughable if it were not so sad.
ReplyDeleteAt one facility, a 2006 electrical upgrade work order with a final
PassPort cost of $140,151 had multiple problems. The total
PassPort estimate for this project was $133,574; however, there
Page 6 Details of Findings
was no cost entered for materials and supplies, and only $9,282
was entered for labor. The other $124,292 was shown as
“miscellaneous.” Actual labor totaled $129,579 and actual
materials totaled $10,157.
As we speak, KSL is gold-bricking the system at LANL with overly frequent fire alarm testing using huge crews of unnecessary workers. LANL facilities managers must be in on this latest scam.
ReplyDeleteYou would think LANS or LASO would want to investigate this, but, no. They'll just continue to let KSL rob the operating budget so we can end up laying off more of the LANL staff.
It almost makes you wonder if some people in the management chain are getting kickbacks under the table.
LANS will just say that the KSL mess occurred on the "UC" watch, not LANS, and keep throwing their "partner" under the bus, just as they did for the latest fine.
ReplyDelete