Special report on the audit of the management of Department of Energy construction projects

DOE`s FY 1996 budget of $18 billion included $1.1 billion for construction projects; ensuring that these projects meet bonafide existing or future DOE needs becomes increasingly important as DOE`s missions evolve and its organization changes. In 1994 and 1995, IG issued several reports expressing concerns about the construction planning process and questioned whether planned construction was necessary to meet mission needs. The reports also pointed out that DOE did not ensure that originally identified needs were still valid several years after a project`s conception. (The problems identified were at single locations.) While DOE management did not agree with all aspects of the audit reports, it canceled or downsized several projects and initiated a number of process improvements to enhance the construction planning process. Purpose of this report is to synthesize issues from these prior reports to assist management in focusing process improvement efforts to avoid construction of unneeded or oversized facilities