Office of Inspector General report on audit of environmental restoration at the Los Alamos National Laboratory

Los Alamos` Environmental Restoration Program is charged with cost effectively remediating contaminated sites. To monitor progress toward this goal, the University of California, the contractor operating Los Alamos, and the Department negotiated eight performance measures. The objective of this audit was to determine whether the contract performance criteria were reasonable, measurable, and complete, thereby allowing the Department to determine if Los Alamos had expeditiously and cost effectively remediated contaminated sites. The audit determined that Los Alamos did not generate the information needed to assess the cost effectiveness of remediation on a site-by-site basis. This situation occurred because the performance criteria used to evaluate cost effectiveness were not always reasonable, measurable, and complete. As a result, neither Los Alamos nor the Department could evaluate the cost effectiveness or progress of the remediation program or accurately budget for upcoming remediation activities. The audit also determined that Los Alamos` sample validation procedures were too costly because Los Alamos validated more samples than called for by Federal and New Mexico standard practices. While the Office of Inspector General recognizes the importance of prudent sample validation, Los Alamos paid $540,000 more than necessary to validate sample results. These funds could have been used to remediate contaminated sites