Lawmakers weigh effectiveness of nuclear security agency
Congressional witnesses Tuesday debated the effectiveness of recent organizational efforts by the National Nuclear Security Administration.
The NNSA has instituted several organizational measures to improve effectiveness and efficiency since a May 2001 report to Congress, NNSA Administrator John Gordon told the House Armed Services Special Oversight Panel on Department of Energy Reorganization.
"I believe our efforts, and our recently announced plans, have placed us on the right path to achieving our vision of an integrated nuclear security enterprise operating an efficient and agile nuclear weapons complex," Gordon said.
Gordon said the agency has taken several steps, including a installation of a new structure consolidating NNSA headquarters support functions; installation of new leadership; integration of decision making with a new management council; adoption of a planning, budgeting and evaluation system for business processes; better definition of the NNSA's place in the Energy Department and resolution of other organizational problems not covered by the May report.
The NNSA this week submitted a report to Congress describing how the organization plans to delineate responsibilities between headquarters and field units, Gordon said.
The new plan will simplify the organizational structure between the NNSA and various nuclear weapons laboratories by removing two federal management layers, he said. Under the new plan, each facility will report to a NNSA site office, which would report to the NNSA administrator.
The NNSA hopes to streamline its workforce by reducing the numbers of separate offices and federal employees, Gordon said. Those employees not involved with "core functions" will either be retrained or redeployed, he said.
The NNSA will also streamline its procedures to reduce unnecessary details in NNSA policy, guidance orders and contracts, Gordon said. This, in turn, will reduce the administrative burdens on NNSA contractors, he added.
"As a result, laboratory and production plant contractors will be given clearer and more consistent expectations and will be held directly accountable for achieving the results required to achieve our mission," Gordon said.
Even though the NNSA has made progress in restructuring its headquarters' organization last May, it still has not implemented an overall organizational structure, Gary Jones, General Accounting Office director of natural resources and environment, told the House oversight panel.
"While we are hopeful that resolution of long-standing organizational issues may now be within NNSA's grasp, without the discipline of an implementation plan, reaching NNSA's goals is likely to be a long and arduous process that could take several years," Jones said.
The NNSA has lost momentum in putting into place a new planning and budgeting process envisioned by Gordon, Jones said. Even though the agency has created a "conceptual" planning, programming and budgeting process, it still has much work to do by the fiscal 2004 budget cycle, Jones said.
The NNSA also lacks a sizeable staff to be able to carry out any new organization, Jones said, adding that the agency has used only 19 of its 300 excepted service positions.
"NNSA does not yet have a long-term strategic approach to ensure a well-managed, properly sized and skilled workforce over the long run," Jones said. "Such a plan is vital to effective implementation of NNSA's new organization."
Jones said GAO understands that it will take time for the NNSA to fully create and implement an effective organizational structure.
"However, we believe the best time to address long-standing problems is when the new organization and systems are first being laid out and the momentum for change is at its highest," Jones said. "NNSA needs to move forward aggressively so that this opportunity does not slip away and old ways reemerge and harden."