DOE OIG: NNSA’s Management of the $245 million Nuclear Materials Safeguards and Security Upgrades Project Phase II at Los Alamos National Laboratory

OIG’s review revealed that the NMSSUP suffered from a number of project management weaknesses.  These issues ultimately resulted in cost increases of as much as $41 million and delayed completion of the project by nearly a year.  In addition, management information systems failed to provide accurate and complete information about the funds available to complete the remaining work scope.  These project management issues created a series of problems that collectively resulted in significant unanticipated cost and schedule impacts.  Although it failed to take effective action to address project management weaknesses in NMSSUP, the Department implemented detective controls that identified many of the issues in this report and are key tools for holding Department contractors accountable for their performance.  NNSA had taken a number of positive actions to hold LANS accountable for lack of performance; however, project management concerns remain despite these actions.