DOE | The Contracting Education Academy

March 22, 2021 By cs

GAO report suggests DOE should identify more instances of contractor fraud

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report on Department of Energy (DOE) contracting, entitled “Improvements Needed to Ensure DOE Assesses Its Full Range of Contracting Fraud Risks.”

The thrust of the report is that DOE should do more to prevent and detect fraud, particularly in less-examined areas such as bid-rigging, misrepresentation of eligibility, kickbacks and gratuities, and conflicts of interest.

DOE relies on contractors to carry out its missions at laboratories and other facilities, spending approximately 80 percent of its $41 billion in total obligations on contracts. In March 2017, GAO reviewed DOE’s approach to managing its risk of fraud and found DOE did not use leading practices, resulting in missed opportunities to mitigate the likelihood and impact of fraud.

In its most recent report, GAO examined DOE’s processes for managing contracting fraud risks and concluded that DOE has not assessed the full range of fraud risks it faces.

Despite some improvements toward combating fraud in response to GAO’s March 2017 recommendations, GAO noted that the agency’s methods for gathering information capture only top fraud risks and fail to obtain information on fraud risks for non-management and operating (M&O) contractors.

GAO reviewed nine categories of contracting fraud schemes that occurred at DOE sites, and found that DOE’s risk profiles for FY 2018 and 2019 captured five of these nine fraud schemes (billing schemes, payroll schemes, product quality, theft, contract progress schemes), but failed to capture four others: bid-rigging, misrepresentation of eligibility, kickbacks and gratuities, and conflicts of interest. The report urges DOE to give these other areas greater focus in its fraud risk planning.

Keep reading this article at: https://governmentcontractsnavigator.com/2021/01/19/gao-report-suggests-doe-should-identify-more-instances-of-contractor-fraud/

August 24, 2018 By AMK

GAO: National Nuclear Security Administration needs better contract oversight

Some of the field offices of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) aren’t using a key Energy Department IT system to track important management and operations contracts, an oversight the Government Accountability Office (GAO) warns could potentially cost NNSA millions.

The NNSA, the semi-autonomous agency within the Energy Department, should officially advise its field offices to use a DOE’s Strategic Integrated Procurement Enterprise System (STRIPES) system to manage billions in management and operating (M&O) contracts, GAO said.

Those field offices, said the report, are using the web-based STRIPES for contract writing and modification, but not tapping its document management capabilities.

For the audit, GAO monitored contracts from NNSA’s Office of Acquisition and Project Management (OAPM), which is in charge of managing the M&O contracts for field offices. NNSA spent $11 billion through such contracts in fiscal 2016, GAO noted.

Keep reading this article at: https://fcw.com/articles/2018/08/06/gao-nnsa-rockwell.aspx

August 3, 2018 By AMK

Georgia Tech receives $1.6 million for nuclear energy projects

The Department of Energy (DOE) recently awarded the Georgia Institute of Technology $1.6 million in two grants for testing materials used in producing nuclear energy.

DOE is awarding $47 million through its Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP) to support 63 university-led nuclear energy research and development projects in 29 states. NEUP seeks to maintain U.S. leadership in nuclear research across the country by providing top science and engineering faculty and their students opportunities to develop innovative technologies and solutions for civil nuclear capabilities.

“Because nuclear energy is such a vital part of our nation’s energy portfolio, these investments are necessary to ensuring that future generations of Americans will continue to benefit from safe, clean, reliable, and resilient nuclear energy,” said Ed McGinnis, DOE’s principal deputy assistant secretary for nuclear energy. “Our commitment to providing researchers with access to the fundamental infrastructure and capabilities needed to develop advanced nuclear technologies is critical.”

The awards are dispersed under three DOE nuclear energy programs: the Nuclear Energy University Program (NEUP), the Nuclear Energy Enabling Technologies (NEET) program, and the Nuclear Science User Facilities (NSUF) program.

Georgia Tech’s projects are funded by the NEUP. The first is for corrosion testing of new alloys and accompanying on-line reduction oxidation measurements in the flow loops of Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) eutectic alkaline metal fluoride salt mixture, specifically the molten salts lithium fluoride, sodium fluoride, and potassium fluoride (also called FLiNaK) as well as lithium fluoride and beryllium fluoride (or FLiBe.)

“The structural alloys in fluoride salt-cooled high-temperature reactors (FHR) will be exposed to molten fluoride salt mixtures at high temperatures, which can be very corrosive depending on the alloy composition and the presence of impurities in the molten salt. It is very important to test the candidate alloys under potential FHR conditions and understand the corrosion mechanisms in order to select the right alloys to use in building the structure of a reactor,” said Preet M. Singh, principal investigator on the project from Georgia Tech’s School of Materials Science and Engineering.

In the second project, a modeling and simulation tool will be developed to perform highly accurate and efficient transient calculations in the FHRs.

“Accurate and efficient modeling and simulation tools are needed to support design optimization, analysis, licensing, and eventual deployment of any reactor,” said Farzad Rahnema, the project’s principal investigator and Georgia Power Company Distinguished Professor of Nuclear Engineering in Georgia Tech’s George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering. “The current tools are inadequate for modeling advanced reactors such as the FHRs because of their complex geometry and high heterogeneity. The capability to perform transient calculations with high fidelity is an important component of licensing first-of-a-kind reactors, where experimental data are lacking or scarce.”

The DOE awards are for three years.

Learn more at the DOE’s Office of Nuclear Energy website.

Source: http://www.news.gatech.edu/2018/07/12/georgia-tech-receives-16-million-nuclear-energy-projects

December 14, 2017 By AMK

Former contracting officer at nuclear R&D facility pleads guilty to wire fraud and money laundering

A former procurement officer employed at Sandia Corporation, the prime operator of a federally funded nuclear research and development facility, pleaded guilty Dec. 5th to charges of wire fraud and money laundering for orchestrating a scheme to obtain approximately $2.3 million in federal funds through fraudulent means and for laundering fraudulently obtained proceeds through her father’s companies.

Carla Sena, 55, of Santa Rosa, New Mexico, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud and one count of money laundering in the U.S. District Court of New Mexico. Sentencing will be scheduled at a later date.

According to the plea documents, Sena’s employer, Sandia Corporation, managed and operated Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), a nuclear research and development facility owned by the federal government under sponsorship of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

In late 2010, Sena managed the bidding process for the award of a multi-million-dollar contract for moving services at SNL.
Sena admitted that, in anticipation of the bidding process for this contract, she created the company, New Mexico Express Movers LLC (Movers LLC), to which she awarded the multi-million-dollar contract.
Sena prepared a bid on Movers LLC’s behalf containing fraudulent misrepresentations, and submitted the bid under the name of an individual who had no knowledge of Movers LLC to conceal her involvement.
Sena also admitted that she used her position of trust to access inside information and competing bidders’ documents that she leveraged to ensure award of the contract to Movers LLC.
As a direct result of Sena’s fraudulent scheme, Movers LLC received approximately $2.3 million in federal funds between May 2011 and April 2016.
Sena also admitted that, between October 2011 and April 2015, she transferred via negotiated checks at least $643,000 of the fraudulently obtained proceeds to legitimate businesses owned by her father with the intent to conceal the source and control of those funds and her subsequent personal gain from the proceeds.

The DOE Office of Inspector General investigated the case.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-procurement-officer-federally-funded-nuclear-research-and-development-facility-pleads

November 28, 2017 By AMK

Former procurement officer indicted on wire fraud and money laundering charges

A federal grand jury sitting in the District of New Mexico returned an 11-count indictment against a former procurement officer employed at Sandia National Laboratories (SNL), a nuclear research and development facility of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), for orchestrating a scheme to obtain a $2.3 million contract through fraudulent means.

Carla Sena, 55, of Albuquerque, New Mexico was charged with three counts of wire fraud, one count of major fraud against the United States and seven counts of money laundering.

According to the indictment, SNL was managed and operated by Sandia Corporation (Sandia) during the relevant time period. In late 2010, Sena was assigned by Sandia to manage the bidding process for the award of a contract for moving services at SNL. In anticipation thereof, Sena created New Mexico Express Movers LLC (Movers LLC), prepared a bid on Movers LLC’s behalf, and submitted the bid to Sandia under someone else’s name to conceal her involvement. Sena made several material and fraudulent misrepresentations in Movers LLC’s bid that would have resulted in disqualification, but she used her position at SNL to ensure that these misrepresentations went undetected. Sena also used her position to access other bidders’ documents and information that she in turn leveraged to ensure award of the contract to Movers LLC. As a direct result of Sena’s scheme to defraud, Movers LLC received approximately $2.3 million in DOE funds. The indictment further alleges that, between December 2011 and April 2015, Sena transferred via negotiated checks at least $643,000 of these fraudulently obtained proceeds to legitimate businesses owned by her father with the intent to conceal her subsequent use of the proceeds for personal gain.

The indictment is the result of an ongoing investigation by the DOE Office of Inspector General and is being prosecuted by the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section.

The fact that a defendant has been charged with a crime is merely an accusation, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless proven guilty.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/former-procurement-officer-federally-funded-nuclear-research-and-development-facility

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has issued a report on Department of Energy (DOE) contracting, entitled “Improvements Needed to Ensure DOE Assesses Its Full Range of Contracting Fraud Risks.”

Some of the field offices of the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) aren’t using a key Energy Department IT system to track important management and operations contracts, an oversight the Government Accountability Office (GAO) warns could potentially cost NNSA millions.

The Department of Energy (DOE) recently awarded the Georgia Institute of Technology $1.6 million in two grants for testing materials used in producing nuclear energy.

Search this Website