Delays Could Impact Start of D-Basin Project
Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
2/13/2015
After Savannah River Nuclear Solutions, the managing contractor at the Savannah River Site, has worked to improve its Earned Value Management System certification since it was revoked in 2013, the contractor says it has corrected the issues and is ready for a follow-up review. Now that SRNS has completed corrective actions, DOE’s Office of Acquisition and Project Management and Office of Environmental Management “will be meeting with SRS and SRNS in the near future to further discuss the process and schedule,” a Department of Energy spokeswoman said. However, the issue may complicate efforts to start the new D-Area Ash Basin capital project scheduled to start this spring. If SRNS does not have its EVMS certification when the project starts, the Federal project team “must ensure alternate means to monitor and control cost and schedule against contractual terms,” the spokeswoman said.
A contractor’s EVMS is the set of policies and procedures that aids in making decisions and supports project management and risk management. Fluor-led SRNS had its EVMS suspended in November 2012. OAPM then completed a review of the system before revoking the certification in August 2013. The 2013 DOE review identified 44 areas for corrective action in the contractor’s EVMS. Areas of concern raised by the review include work authorizations that were not current, contingency budget allocations without scope changes, scheduling, estimate at completion, critical path, and process improvements. The review also identified 10 more areas for continuous improvement. When asked this week about its EVMS system, SRNS referred requests for comment to DOE.
DOE: Lack of EVMS Raises Questions About Data Integrity
DOE raised the issue of SRNS’ lack of EVMS certification in its Fiscal Year 2014 award fee determination scorecard, released last month. “Over the past sixteen months, although significant progress has been made toward recertification, the fact remains the SRNS EVMS is still not certified and won’t be until late FY2015,” the scorecard states. “With the EVMS not being certified, this calls in to question how EVMS principles are being applied to non-capital asset scope and the integrity of data being reported.”
The D-Basin closure project is an effort to close a 40-acre basin containing wet ash, which will be excavated and consolidated in a landfill. “Until your EVMS is recertified, this may jeopardize the start of the D-Area Ash Basin capital asset project scheduled to start in the spring of 2015,” the award fee scorecard states. DOE this week did not respond to questions on whether the start of the D-Basin Ash project would be put in jeopardy. Critical decision approvals are expected later this year, DOE said.
EVMS Review Will Use D-Area Project Data
DOE said that its review will use data from the D-Area project in the SRNS effort to recertify. “A major component of the EVMS review is evaluating real time documentation and data of specific projects to ensure continued compliance with the American National Standards Institute/Electronics Industrial Alliance-748,” the DOE spokeswoman said. “The projects evaluated during the ‘for cause’ review are essentially complete, therefore, EVMS data generated for the D-Area Ash Basin project will be used as a basis for recertification and should be available later this fiscal year.”
