The Project On Government Oversight (POGO) Blog

Break-In Reveals "Ineptitude" at Nuke Facility, Probe Finds

By MIA STEINLE

A government investigation into the recent break-in at a nuclear weapons facility in Oak Ridge, Tenn., blamed longstanding security weaknesses and “troubling displays of ineptitude” by facility personnel.

The probe by a federal inspector general found that security problems, some of which personnel had been aware of for months, “directly contributed” to the July incident, when activists including an 82-year-old nun penetrated three fences and staged an anti-nuclear protest.

The facility’s federal and contractor managers knew of “a substantial backlog of degraded and/or nonoperational security equipment” at the Y-12 National Security Complex prior to the break-in, according to the inspector general.  The security camera that faced the site of the break-in hadn’t been working for about six months, he wrote.

The findings were reported in an Aug. 29 memo by Gregory Friedman, the inspector general for the Department of Energy.

After the activists broke through a fence surrounding the complex, a security guard turned off an alarm without seeking its cause, Friedman wrote.

Other security guards interviewed by the inspector general’s office said they assumed the sound of a hammer beating against the facility wall was coming from maintenance workers, who they said sometimes show up “in the hours of darkness and without warning,” Friedman said.

“In short, the actions of these officers were inconsistent with the gravity of the situation and existing protocols,” he said.

Some Senators Want to Waste Big Bucks on Unnecessary Nuke Facility

Congressional attempts to fund a new nuclear weapons facility are “alarming,” given that experts say the facility is unnecessary, according to a letter the Project On Government Oversight sent yesterday to Secretary of Energy Steven Chu.

Several senators did an end-run around Chu earlier this summer when they wrote letters to Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta urging him to fund the nuclear weapons facility, known as the Chemistry and Metallurgy Research Replacement-Nuclear Facility (CMRR-NF) at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. Chu’s Department of Energy (DOE) and the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) oversee the nation’s nuclear weapons complex.

The facility, which would enable the nation to increase its production of a primary component of nuclear weapons, has seen its estimated cost increase from $375 million to nearly $6 billion over the course of a decade. And experts—including former nuclear weapons facility officials—have said the facility is not necessary to ensure national security, POGO reported in January.

Conservatives Tell Rep. Issa: Federal Whistleblowers, and Taxpayers, Deserve Their Day in Court

By ANGELA CANTERBURY AND SUZANNE DERSHOWITZ

Today, the North County Times—a paper in Representative Darrell Issa’s (R-Calif.) district—published an Op-Ed by our allies at National Taxpayers Union (NTU) and Liberty Coalition that makes clear they expect Rep. Issa to fulfill his promise of protections for federal whistleblowers by ensuring those whistleblowers can access the courts to hold the government accountable.

The Senate unanimously passed the Whistleblower Protection Enhancement Act or WPEA (S. 743) in May, and now it’s the House’s turn to take action on Rep. Issa’s version of the bill (H.R. 3289). This landmark legislation would provide a better safety net for federal workers who sound the alarm on waste, fraud, abuse, and illegality. The Project On Government Oversight hopes the strongest possible version of the bill will reach the President’s desk this year.

Unfortunately, gaps in protection in the access-to-court provisions remain in the House bill. As Michael Ostrolenk of the Liberty Coalition and Pete Sepp of NTU wrote, “Every private-sector whistleblower protection law passed by Congress in the last decade includes a right to a jury trial and normal appeals process, which the current bill fails to include.” As Chairman of House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rep. Issa should work to pass a bill in the House that includes the standard that has already been established for private sector whistleblowing.

Video: Signing and Celebrating the Camp Lejeune Health Care Law

By ANDRE FRANCISCO

On August 6, President Obama signed into law a bill providing health care for the hundreds of thousands of people who suffered ailments from being rThaexposed to contaminated water at Camp Lejeune. This was a huge victory for the many victims who have been fighting to get recognition and care for the many illnesses that have stemmed from the Camp Lejeune contamination.

The Project On Government Oversight worked hand-in-hand with the many heroes who fought for this victory including Ret. MSgt. Jerry Ensminger, Lejeune victim Mike Partain, the Environmental Working Group, and filmakers Rachel Libert and Tony Hardmon.

Watch the video to see the signing, the celebration and the work that still needs to be done.

Read more about Camp Lejeune here.

Andre Francisco is an online producer for the Project On Government Oversight.

Follow @andrefrancisco

Pentagon's Testing Czar Questions F-35 Program Test Plan

By BEN FREEMAN Ph.D

The Project On Government Oversight is making public for the first time a memo from the Pentagon testing czar questioning the testing program for the Joint Strike Fighter, the military's most expensive weapons program.

As first reported by AOL Defense, the memo expresses the grievances of Michael Gilmore, Director of Operational Test and Evaluation at the Pentagon, regarding the Test and Evaluation Master Plan for the Joint Strike Fighter (F-35) program.

Amongst other issues, Gilmore is concerned about unduly rushing tests and limited funding for testing of the aircraft program.

“The plans for and content of testing must be determined by the data that need to be obtained to support a comprehensive and rigorous operational evaluation—not by budget targets set by the program office,” writes Gilmore.

POGO applauds efforts like this to ensure proper testing of military weapons. Cutting corners in F-35 testing is penny-wise and pound-foolish—the Pentagon may save a few million dollars now, but taxpayers will have to pay billions later. With a price-tag of $1.5 trillion, the F-35 is already the most expensive weapons program in history. The Pentagon should do everything it can to make sure these costs don’t continue to increase.

You can see the full memo below.

Y-12 Security to Finally Be Tested

By PETER STOCKTON

After an embarrassing breach of security at the Y-12 National Security Complex in July, the Project On Government Oversight has learned that the Department of Energy’s Office of Independent Oversight Program (IO) will conduct a full review of security at Y-12 before the end of this month, including a performance test of the guard force, which means force-on-force exercises.

The IO team arrived today at Y-12, and POGO is concerned that there is pressure on IO to dumb-down the performance tests by DOE Program Offices and the Office of the Secretary. IO might be capable, but under the circumstances, DOE should consider using the Defense Department’s Grizzly Hitch as the adversaries. They are a unit of the Army Special Forces out of Fort Bragg that have been used in the past to test DOE guard forces. In fact, because they are independent of DOE, they would provide a true assessment of Y-12’s security operations.

POGO has also learned that IO teams will conduct additional performance tests (including force-on-force drills) at each of the CAT 1 sites—sites with bomb-grade uranium and plutonium—including Savannah River, Oak Ridge National Lab, Idaho National Lab, Lawrence Livermore, Los Alamos, and Pantex. Those tests are scheduled for the next twelve months, but POGO believes they should be conducted in the next six months or less.

Additionally, a DoD security team will conduct force-on-force security tests in September at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

These security tests are needed, but DOE and DoD must ensure that they present genuine conditions and that security forces aren’t practicing based on a scripted plan. If an 82-year-old nun was able to breach Y-12 and wander around, we need to reconsider our approach to protecting the nuclear arsenal.

Peter Stockton is a senior investigator at the Project On Government Oversight. Image from U.S. Army.

Guard Scapegoated in the Y-12 Security Debacle

By PETER STOCKTON and LYDIA DENNETT

The Y-12 National Security Complex, operated by Babcock and Wilcox Y-12 (B&W Y-12) and secured by WSI-Oak Ridge (WSI-OR), went on lockdown after a security breach that a top Department of Energy (DOE) official told POGO was the “worst disaster in the history of the bomb program.” The DOE official added: “We spend $1.2 billion annually on security and what are we getting for it?

Who is held accountable? Of course it’s only one security guard—the one who actually did his job and apprehended the three activists who wandered around the secure areas of the facility. In an August 10, 2012, letter, Kirk Garland—a guard with 30 years of experience at DOE nuclear weapons sites, over 21 years of which were at Rocky Flats and Pantex—was fired for his “failed” responsibilities after discovering the three activists. According to Garland, he was fired for allegedly turning his back on the three intruders, which he doesn’t recall doing. That he did not, in fact, ever turn his back was confirmed by Megan Rice, the now famous 82-year-old nun, who told POGO that she was watching Garland and he never took his eyes off the three activists. Other WSI-OR and B&W Y-12 employees were reassigned to other jobs or were allowed to retire, but only Garland lost his job. Mr. Garland should be reinstated immediately.

The Politics of Pentagon Profiteers and the Truth about Jobs

The big Pentagon contractors have been trying to scare lawmakers, the public, and the troops with dramatic claims that there will be massive job losses. For nearly a year, these contractors and their lobbyists have likened potential cuts in the Pentagon budget to the sky falling.

Their threats to send layoff notices—right in time for the November elections—have been admonished from many corners—and are among the more desperate political stunts of recent memory. But just to be sure they’ve got the attention of all candidates, they’ve cooked up hyperbolic job loss numbers based on convenient, if completely faulty assumptions—these are available by state or congressional district, don’t you know.

Some are taking the bait. Certain members of Congress have been parroting these scaremongering talking points during town halls and other events this month during the congressional recess. In their very scary “sequestration roadshow” they are talking about jobs, but fail to mention some essential information about how exactly these contractors have been living large on the largess of taxpayer dollars. 

10 Questions for the 2012 Candidates

By ANGELA CANTERBURY

Click to see our 10 Questions for 2012 Candidates

There are a lot of distractions during election season. There are more and more gotcha ads, and increasingly less discussion about what really matters. At POGO, OpenTheGovernment.org and the American Society of Newspaper Editors we spend a lot of time thinking about how our government can be more transparent, accountable, and effective. We'd love to be having conversations with every candidate to help educate them and to inform the work that we do in Washington---no matter the results of the election. Perhaps together we can!

POGO, OpenTheGovernment.org and ASNE have put together some questions we hope will spark important discussions about our government and democracy. These questions cover a lot of ground--on issues ranging from how to balance national security with rights like free speech, how to know who's influencing elections and government policies, how to protect whistleblowers, how to follow the money the government spends, and more. What interests you?

Over the coming days and weeks candidates will be out shaking hands, kissing babies, and making appearances at county fairs, town hall meetings, debates--maybe in your neighborhood. If you have an opportunity to ask a candidate a question, check out the 10 Questions we'd most like to ask in 2012. Then tell us about the conversations you have with candidates about making our government more open and accountable!

Angela Canterbury is the director of public policy at the Project On Government Oversight. Image by Flickr user IowaPolitics.com.

Face the Facts: Why Health Net Escaped Consequences of IG Investigation

By NEIL GORDON

Last week, POGO blogged about a Department of Veterans Affairs Inspector General (IG) report finding that a service-disabled veteran-owned small business (SDVOSB) named Enterprise Technology Solutions (ETS) had used its special status to allow the Fortune 500-sized health insurance provider Health Net to improperly benefit from a federal contracting program for small and/or disadvantaged businesses. Despite catching both companies red-handed, however, the IG only referred ETS for possible suspension or debarment.

Is Health Net “too big to debar”? Let’s look at the facts:

Health Net currently has 22 instances of misconduct in our Federal Contractor Misconduct Database, including a temporary suspension from the Medicare program in 2010 and hundreds of millions of dollars in fines, penalties, and settlements paid to private plaintiffs and state regulators since 1995. However…

Health Net is a very big company. It currently ranks number 221 in the Fortune 500, with $11.9 billion in revenue and 7,400 employees.

More importantly, Health Net is also a very big federal contractor, receiving billions of dollars in contracts every year. Almost all of those dollars come from the Pentagon to administer part of the TRICARE health insurance program for millions of active-duty and retired military personnel and their families.

Relations between Health Net and the government are very cozy. Health Net has spent millions of dollars on federal lobbying and campaign contributions. Recall that ETS, the company that allowed Health Net to benefit from the SDVOSB program, was formed in 2006 – with Health Net’s encouragement – by a former senior VA official named Donald Neilson. (According to Nextgov, Neilson served as director of VA Information Management Services.) The Veterans Affairs IG has released three reports in recent years identifying contracting improprieties involving former VA employees who went on to form or work for SDVOSBs.

Infographic: Defense CEOs vs. Workers

By ANDRE FRANCISCO

If you listen to the CEOs of the top aerospace and defense contractors, the planned Pentagon spending cuts are going to be devastating to defense industry workers. Don't believe everything you hear.

Not only is the correlation between federal contracts and defense industry jobs suspect, but CEOs should take a look at their own compensation packages before they start threatening the jobs of their employees.

An analysis by POGO investigator Ben Freeman showed that a CEO of a top five aerospace and defense contractor makes on average $21.5 million per year in compensation, which is 268 times what the average defense industry worker makes. When you compare defense CEO compensation to salaries for soldiers with 10 years of experience, the gap is even greater.

Help get the word out by sharing the graphic above to your friends on Twitter and Facebook.

Andre Francisco is an online producer for the Project On Government Oversight.

Follow @andrefrancisco

Navy Appoints Panel to Address Warship's Problems

By BEN FREEMAN, Ph.D.

The U.S. Navy has convened a panel of high-ranking officers to study problems with the long-troubled “littoral combat ship,” an unconventional type of warship that the Navy has been counting on to perform an array of missions.

In a memo dated Aug. 22, the Navy’s top admiral ordered the new panel to address “challenges identified” in a series of recent wargames and other reviews.

“All Navy combat ships, even test and evaluation platforms, must be ready to meet assigned capability and missions starting the first day of active service,” Chief of Naval Operations Jonathan W. Greenert wrote in a memo posted by Defense News. “The Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) is no exception,” he wrote.

The Project On Government Oversight has documented extensive problems with the U.S.S. Freedom, the first of the vessels. In April, POGO reported that the Freedom had suffered engine failures, cracks, flooding and corrosion. 

Last week, POGO reported that, according to internal Navy documents, the Freedom had suffered from directional instability – difficulty maintaining a straight course. According to the documents, Navy personnel had urged that the information be closely held at a time when Congress was weighing the future of the vessel.