DOE IG Criticizes ORNL Personnel Security Program

An inspection report by the Department of Energy’s Inspector General said it could not confirm an allegation that a former senior official at Oak Ridge National Laboratory retained access to sensitive information after becoming a “casual” employee at ORNL. However, the IG report said it did identify a number of weaknesses in the lab’s personnel security program. Among other things, the report cited ORNL’s failure to promptly report that the former lab executive with security clearance had taken a job overseas, and it criticized DOE’s Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence for not enforcing a policy that requires debriefing—face-to-face, if possible—of employees who had previous access to classified information.

In its review of the allegation, the IG found that ORNL actually followed procedures set forth by the intelligence office at DOE headquarters in requesting a “re-justification” for the employee to retain access to sensitive information at the lab after the individual’s employment status changed. That was based on the fact that the individual, even after the employment status was downgraded, would be participating as a member of the Strategic Advisory Group for ORNL’s Global Security Directorate. That group, which includes participants from industry and academia, advises the Oak Ridge lab on its alignment with national security needs.

The individual whose status was reviewed is not named in the IG report. However, the report describes the individual as a former senior management official at ORNL with expertise in high-performance computing who began overseas employment on Sept. 1, 2012. Thomas Zacharia, ORNL’s former deputy lab director for science and technology who was architect of the lab’s world-leading scientific computing program, left ORNL in August 2012 to take a leadership position at a research foundation in Qatar. There is nothing in the IG report to suggest the individual did anything wrong. In an email response to questions, ORNL spokesman David Keim said there’s no indication of “inappropriate access” to information at ORNL. “But we always review potential weaknesses noted in these reports and take measures that will make the lab even more secure,” he said.