Probe Of Hanford’s Spending Demanded Oregon’s Wyden Doesn’t Like Amount Of Overhead
U.S. Rep. Ron Wyden of Oregon is calling for a congressional investigation into spending at Hanford.
Wyden, senior Democrat on a House oversight committee with jurisdiction over Hanford, doesn’t like the amount Hanford spends on overhead: An estimated 30 cents out of every cleanup dollar, or $451 million last year.
Almost $275 million from Hanford’s $1.5 billion budget could be cut, Wyden said Friday at a news conference in Portland.
The issue is urgent at a time when the U.S. Department of Energy is slashing Hanford’s nuclear cleanup budget, Wyden said.
“DOE is threatening to break Hanford’s `Contract With America’ by failing to fund critical cleanup work while allowing its contractors to waste taxpayers’ money,” he said.
“The culture of waste…just continues, pretty much as business as usual.”
Wyden said he’s been waiting nearly a year for DOE to answer his questions about Hanford spending. He’s still waiting, and that’s why he wants Congress to intervene.
Rep. Michael Oxley, the Ohio Republican who heads the House oversight committee, would have to agree to the Hanford probe.
Westinghouse could spend more on cleanup by trimming $150 million in waste - such as $440,000 tax payers spent last year for frozen dinners taken to employees working overtime at remote sites, Wyden said.
The “Hungry Man” meals were one example of questionable spending cited last November in a Spokesman-Review series on Hanford’s budget.
Westinghouse Hanford officials were informed ahead of time about Wyden’s news conference.
On Thursday night, they issued a statement to their employees defending their efforts to cut waste at Hanford.
The $451 million in overhead in 1994 is “the cost of keeping a city of 18,000 going, with all the roads, buildings and maintenance that that entails,” said Larry Peters, the company’s chief financial officer.
Westinghouse has cut costs by lowering a surcharge on purchases from 27 percent in 1991 to 22 percent in 1994, said spokesman Craig Kuhlman.
If one office ordered a $1 pen, it would be charged an extra 22 cents to cover company-wide administrative costs, such as payroll, Kuhlman said.
The surcharge accounted for $195 million of the $451 million in total overhead last year. The remaining $256 million “is the cost of running Hanford,” Kuhlman said.
“We know we need to get that down,” he added.
Wyden said the Department of Energy made him wait 10 months before it supplied figures about Hanford spending, and some figures were withheld on questionable “national security” grounds.
“They had blocked out big chunks of the public relations budget,” Wyden said. “That was what was incredible about it. This was pure public relations. The reason they didn’t want to put it out is that it was incredibly embarrassing.”
When asked by reporters whether the Hanford budget amounted to “pork barrel” spending by the Washington congressional delegation, Wyden declined to lay blame on his colleagues.
But he called on the Republican majority to live up to promises to cut waste.
xxxx Report offers ways to trim spending With the Hanford watchdog group Heart of America Northwest, Wyden issued a report that recommends several ways to trim spending, including: A 10 percent reduction in overhead costs for a $150 million savings on paperwork and such items as office supples. Slashing the $20 million Westinghouse spent last year on public relations. The company plans to increase public relations spending to improve its image at a time when its budget is being cut. Ending bus service to jobs on the nuclear reservation, which cost $4,000 per user last year for a total cost of $5 million. Axing a $63 million contractor “cost saving” bonus for not spending $435 million on six new waste tanks that DOE says aren’t needed. Cutting legal expenses. Westinghouse Hanford Co., the main site contractor, spent more than $8 million on unnecessary legal fees last year and is budgeting $40 million for fiscal 1995-96, Wyden said. “The culture of waste…just continues, pretty much as business as usual,” he said.
The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Karen Dorn Steele staff writer The Associated Press contributed to this report.