Two nuclear weapons complex watchdog groups are urging Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz to slash the fee of Lockheed Martin-run Sandia National Laboratories for its involvement in a pair of lobbying incidents that were revealed over the last two years. Lockheed Martin’s Sandia Corporation can earn up to $9.8 million in at-risk fee in Fiscal Year 2014 on top of $18.3 million in fixed fees called for in its contract, and the Project on Government Oversight and Nuclear Watch New Mexico said in a Dec. 19 letter to Moniz that the at-risk fee should be cut.
The groups cited a November Department of Energy Inspector General report that said Sandia had illegally tried to influence a DOE decision on an extension of its contract, which currently runs through April of 2016 after DOE granted the contractor a two-year extension in April of this year. The IG said that former New Mexico Congresswoman Heather Wilson (R), who was the subject of a 2013 IG report that said she billed the lab for $450,000 in undocumented consulting work from 2009 to 2011, was involved in the lobbying effort, the IG said. “This blatant attempt to pass along lobbying costs to taxpayers is revolting. Another example of catch me if you can. Reimbursement isn’t enough; DOE must punish Sandia for violating the law,” POGO Senior Investigator Peter Stockton said. The groups earlier this year called on DOE to slash the fee for Los Alamos National Laboratory as well.
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