The Department of Energy should take steps to correct some errors in its classification of national security information – which includes intelligence activities or programs meant to safeguard nuclear materials or facilities – according to a newly released DOE Office of Inspector General report.
The IG found none of the 232 national security documents it reviewed contained critical under-classification errors, while 17 had major over-classification errors and 153 had marking errors.
However, “none of the errors we observed would likely result in the inappropriate release of classified information,” the IG said. The report attributed these classification issues largely to “a lack of attention to detail by some derivative classifiers, ineffective reinforcement of requirements by management, and infrequent classification of documents and email by some derivative classifiers.”
The report also found DOE’s Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence had conducted only 33 percent of the required annual classification decision reviews and 67 percent of the required biennial classification program self-assessments. An official from this DOE office told the IG it did not conduct the required reviews due to “resource constraints and the decision to divert some resources to correcting issues discovered during previous classification program reviews,” the report said.
The IG recommended required classification program reviews be completed and that requirements for marking documents be reiterated at all National Nuclear Security and DOE sites.
In the report, NNSA and DOE’s Offices of Intelligence and Counterintelligence and Environment, Health, Safety and Security said they agreed with the IG’s recommendations and were addressing the issues.
