Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
1/23/2015
The Department of Energy’s Inspector General has temporarily yanked an already-released review of the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Office of Secure Transportation from its website over concerns about the accuracy of the report. The IG only released a summary of the “Official Use Only” report in November, but it said in a notice issued late last week that it is completing an internal review of concerns raised several months after the report was issued by the NNSA and another party about the accuracy of portions of the report. “The report has been removed from the Office of Inspector General website pending completion of an internal review of these concerns,” the IG said in the notice posted on its website.
In its Sept. 24 report, the IG said an Operations Squad Commander with NNSA’s Office of Secure Transportation “engaged in unsuitable, reportable behaviors,” displaying “uncontrolled anger, hostility, and aggression toward fellow workers and authority figures.” The Office of Secure Transportation protects nuclear weapons and nuclear weapons components as they are transported around the weapons complex. The NNSA did not respond to a request for comment this week.
The IG said in its report that it confirmed seven incidents over a span of 10 years. The IG did not substantiate an allegation that the commander forced an OST agent to participate in a training exercise while under medical restriction, but determined that OST’s Deputy Director permitted the agent to “engage in this strenuous training exercise without proper medical clearance.” The IG said senior OST officials did not take action against the commander because the incidents were not reported. “Even though OST had a number of internal controls in place designed to prevent the type of problematic behavior we substantiated, we found them not to be completely effective,” the IG said. “We made recommendations designed to strengthen controls in this important area.”
