No ‘Have It Your Way’ This Time

Can the U.S. Department of Energy afford to cut spending at Hanford? Yes. Can the public interest afford to let Hanford contractors decide how to implement the cuts? No.

Nor can the public have much confidence if the cuts are made by others in the close-knit Richland community - such as Energy Department administrators who have slumbered through abuses by their friends and neighbors on the Westinghouse payroll.

What’s needed is more oversight, investigation and reforms from the outside.

We applaud the new leadership in Congress for its desire to reduce federal spending. We’ll applaud more loudly if the Republicans go for the big bucks that could be saved by probing areas conservatives are reluctant to explore. In the past, conservatives have been unduly fond of their friends in the military industrial complex - the corporate defense contractors, the goldbraided weapons junkies, the chambers of commerce. All of whom like their federal outlays big, unscrutinized, wrapped in an American flag.

Nevertheless, with Congress on an efficiency binge the money squandering at Hanford invites spending cuts. Deservedly so. Unfortunately, the contracting system at Hanford makes it likely that cuts will stop worthwhile work and leave the abuse intact.

Gerry Pollet, a watchdog on the Hanford Advisory Board and chair of its Dollars and Sense Committee, points to a profound flaw in the way the Clinton administration is implementing spending cuts at Hanford. The Energy Department let its contractor, Westinghouse, decide what to cut.

And while top Westinghouse brass recently gave Pollet’s committee a nice speech about their desire for better productivity, lower-ranking program managers left a different impression. They said what they’ll cut is the scope of cleanup work. Pollet said they didn’t seem to have a clue how to reduce their massive labor force and still get the chores done.

So, nuclear waste tanks that pose safety risks to workers and the general public would go unaddressed. While Hanford’s propaganda departments, middle management paper pushers and whistleblower-harassing lawyers would continue on their merry way.

Congress ought to insist on an aggressive look at Westinghouse’s overhead costs. The administration ought to transmit a watchdog spirit to lower levels of the Energy Department hierarchy. And contract provisions ought to change, pronto, so that contractors are forced to invent ways to do their essential work at lower cost. Lower performance shouldn’t be an option.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Webster / For the editorial board