NNSA Accepts University of California Settlement Offer for Deficiencies in Security Procedure
WASHINGTON, DC – The Department of Energy's National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has accepted an offer from the University of California regarding the final notice of violation issued to the university in September 2007 for violations of the department's classified information security requirements during the university's tenure as the management and operating contractor of the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.NNSA had imposed a civil penalty of $3 million. In the settlement proposal, the university offered to pay a penalty of $2.8 million, withdraw its election to seek judicial review of the notice and accept responsibility for the violations.
These violations were revealed during an investigation following the discovery of classified matter in the residence of an employee of a laboratory subcontractor in October 2006.
Was the other two hundred thousand dollars to pay the lawyer who advised UC to assert immunity under the Eleventh Amendment?
ReplyDeleteDear Laboratories,
ReplyDeleteOwing to our blunder regarding how well privatization was going to work out (sorry about that!), we now have a new plan for recovering the extra fees back for DOE use.
Any time something goes wrong, even if you are following our policies, we will fine you. This will allow us to reduce the management fees you receive back to the original .2 % that you previously got by with.
I will be doubling the size of Podonsky's staff effective immediately to ensure that we can conduct sufficient audits to generate enough income. Additional abusive policies will also be required to ensure a target level of noncompliance.
Yours in nuclear goodness,
SammyB
How about those missing classified disks from the DOE's ABQ office back in '04? I'm sure that was worth at least a $1 million fine.
ReplyDeleteAnd what about the loss of SSN numbers for thousands of lab employees back in '06, again from the DOE's ABQ office. Add in another $2 million in fines for that one.
Oh, and did DOE offices throughout the US have JB Weld squirted into all their USB ports? No? We'll then, that should ring up a few million more in fines for DOE to pay.
DOE is using shakedown methods to squeeze extra cash out of their contractors. I'm sure we've only seeing the beginning of this type of behavior. This $3 million fine was just to test the waters for bigger things to come. If they could take the money directly out of the pockets of LANL workers, they would (and maybe someday they will).
Umm, I hate to point it out but the fines and mismanagement fee are already coming out of the pockets of workers. Didn't you notice that your raise was a little thin this year?
ReplyDeleteAfter the $2.8M fine, NNSA paid UC a net of about $5M to run LANL. A real bargain compared with LANS' $175M cost.
ReplyDeleteHow about the all the periodic re-investigation security forms with detailed personal information that the DOE Los Alamos site office has lost or misplaced?
ReplyDeleteRest assured, UC finagled a way to recover this and more from the taxpayer. With politicians like Domenici at the helm, never fear the taxpayer will be required to continue footing the bill for such antics. Just so long as we pass the debt on to someone else, all's well in.the Disney Land of the DOE complex--the Los Alamos Lab. Same ol, same ol.
ReplyDelete