New Mexico Business Weekly
January 17, 2013
Los Alamos management gets contract extension despite low score
- Gary Gerew
Federal
officials gave the Bechtel-University of California group that runs Los
Alamos National Laboratory $59.7 million for managing the lab in 2012
and also gave Los Alamos National Security LLC a one-year contract
extension through a “one-time waiver” that was granted by the National
Nuclear Security Administration, despite LANS’ failure to meet all the
criteria for the extension.
LANS could have earned as much $74.5
million for the fiscal year and got 80 percent of that, according to the
Albuquerque Journal. It was awarded $27.9 million in fixed fees and
work for other entities and another $31.6 million as a so-called “at
risk” fee based on performance.
The at-risk fee could have been
as much as $46.5 million, but LANS got only 68 percent of the maximum.
That was its lowest score since taking over the lab in 2006, according
to the Nuclear Weapons and Materials Monitor.
LANS is supposed to
earn at least 80 percent of the at-risk fee in order to win an “award
term” extending the LANL management contract for an additional year.
That
requirement was waived in this case by Neile Miller, NNSA’s principal
deputy administrator, according to reports by both the Nuclear Weapons
and Materials Monitor and the Los Alamos Monitor, according to the
Journal.
A Dec. 7 letter from an NNSA official said Miller
“expressed a desire to award LANS the (contract extension) award in
recognition of LANS’ acceptance and accountability for problems” with a
flawed security system at the lab and for “moving aggressively to
correct the issues,” according to the Journal report.
28 comments:
I wonder how LÅNS feels about getting a "fully mediocre" evaluation after having given that evaluation to thousands of the best scientists in the world for the last 7-years. What goes around, comes around....
It's embarrassing, ironical, etc. to find out that for all this time (past 5-years) I've been telling my management at LANL to get rid of poor performing employees to find out that LANS itself is a poor performing "employee".
According to this the minimum score for consideration of a contract extension was 80 and the earned score was 68. Looks like Smith did his job correctly and then Miller over ruled him. No one has cited a prior case where NNSA acted in this manner on a contract, so this could be a precedent.
No matter the outcome of any investigation over Miller's actions, and its impact on the future of the contract, a score of 68 would get a grade of D. Must be hard for parents that work at LANL to explain "Charlie math" to their children.
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How about poorly desiged contract clauses, punishments that scare employees into inaction, budget uncertainties that focus all resources on adjustments rather that progress, wher we we report the strong negative impact of NNSA's micromanagement of both labs?
NNSA's incentive 2007-2008 contact redesign, where over $300M a year deliberately wasted in both labs in fees, tazes and increased benefits costs compated to management under UC is much larger than any other single foolishness done by either lab. It raises the quesion, why bother? NNSA deliberately degraded performance and employee compensation for a little more "management control", which judging from this LANL evaluation at least is leading to poorer performance.
Eliminate waste? then can NNSA management of the labs. That is the truth of it.
Today's Dilbert nicely sums up the situation at LANS with the Bechtel-ized management team. I suggest you give it a look:
http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2013-01-18/
How true! This comic strip appears to be exactly how LANS upper management sees their situation. What an amazing amount of scientific rot has taken place at this lab since the salaries and perks of these guys and gals in management started rising sky high with the LLC.... Shhhhh! Can't discuss that issue. It's corporate proprietary info, don't 'cha know.
Suppose they had not extended the contract. They'd have to out for rebid. Can you imagine anyone at this point actually wanting to run any DOE Lab? I can't.
They must have had rules and procedures in place at NNSA to figure what to do when the contractor gets a failing score? Does anyone know what the actual policy would have dictated? Something like a 30 day fire drill to get a new contractor in place to ensure business continuity? Or is there no plan in place for such a contingency?
No, the losers finish their term and NNSA has to begin the process for awarding a new contract in the mean time. The interesting question is what they would do if they got no bids or no serious bids for managing the contract.
No, the losers finish their term and NNSA has to begin the process for awarding a new contract in the mean time. The interesting question is what they would do if they got no bids or no serious bids for managing the contract.
January 18, 2013 at 11:21 PM
There's always one cockroach that will find it's way there, LLNS/LANS being a good examples.
Well, look at a well-run lab (IMHO) like Sandia. Boeing pulled out of the bid process: http://www.abqjournal.com/main/2012/07/12/news/lockheed-wants-to-keep-sandia.html
So there's no competition, and if Lockheed pulled out there'd be no one at all trying to get that contract.
I can't imagine anyone wanting to take on LANL once Bechtel is done with it.
I can't imagine anyone wanting to take on LANL once Bechtel is done with it.
January 19, 2013 at 9:54 AM
By the time Bechtel is done with LANL, they will have eaten every organ and sucked all the blood, leaving nothing but a dead carcass, if that's even left.
I've witnessed quite a few staff members cashing in their chips and leaving Los Alamos *AFTER* the recent VSP offer, even though it's been less than a year since the voluntary layoff. These are highly educated people who could have taken the VSP last April and left with almost 80% of their annual salary as a gift for their "buyout". Things have become so bad and demoralized under LANS that some of the best researchers on the LANL staff are giving up and getting out to save their sanity! They hoped to stay on a few more years after the VSP but can't stand it any longer.
It's been sad to watch this take place. I've even witnessed staff members break down and begin to cry when discussing the bleak situation at LANL under LANS. Any other management team would be better than LANS (aka Bechtel). Anyone. They've destroyed this lab.
It's been sad to watch this take place. I've even witnessed staff members break down and begin to cry when discussing the bleak situation at LANL under LANS. Any other management team would be better than LANS (aka Bechtel). Anyone. They've destroyed this lab.
January 19, 2013 at 7:03 PM
And the staff members "breaking-down" to cry are the scientists sitting at Hot Rocks for two-hour lunches planning which conference they are attending next. How do you think the LANL Weapon Engineers feel that were transferred (by Scott Gibbs and Bret Knapp) to the Facility Operations to mop floors, keep the bathroom fans running, and the toilets flushing?
"And the staff members "breaking-down" to cry are the scientists sitting at Hot Rocks for two-hour lunches planning which conference they are attending next. How do you think the LANL Weapon Engineers feel that were transferred (by Scott Gibbs and Bret Knapp) to the Facility Operations to mop floors, keep the bathroom fans running, and the toilets flushing?
January 19, 2013 at 8:16 PM"
People are not taking 2hour lunches at Hot rocks or planning their next conference. That is BS and you know it.
I am no friend of LANS. You can attack Knapp or Gibbs all you want but do not attack the workers at LANL, you just come off as so sad and bitter that you will strike out at anything and say nonsense. This just makes you look bad when you say things that are untrue.
The "I hate Knapp" guy sounds kind of obsessed and a bit crazy. Maybe he has a point about what happened to him but his continued public outbursts just make him look loopy and makes Knapp look good.
According to Charlie's brag note to employees, the contract extension is for 2018. The contract was already running through 2017, due to where Mike left things.
A different story is that a whistleblower gets to claim 25% of whatever the government gets back from a contractor that they report on. If the 10M that was paid back to the NNSA over the TA 55 fence security system is the basis, someone could have walked away with a cool 2.5M.
Conferences? DOE/NNSA and the labs super-obedient managers have made it so difficult to go on travel that conferences have largely been banned for most the lab's scientists. With the budgets looking bleak for the next few years, I doubt the situation will get any better.
I have never been to HotRocks but I am sure that scientists spend three or four hours a day there. I don't know any scientists but I am sure they are going to conferences in Tahiti for weeks on end about ten times a year. I am sad, bitter, and jealous. I blame the world for my own personal failings.
All this verbiage on Hot Rocks just goes to show you the really "soft skin" that LANL scientists have. God forbid that you challenge how much time they spend at Hot Rocks or the fact that they are unable to attend one less conference this year.
Yeah, right, LANL scientists have easy, carefree, cushy lives, while the various line managers, program managers, administrators, auditors, et cetera continue selfishly slaving away for the good of the country and the institution.
" All this verbiage on Hot Rocks just goes to show you the really "soft skin" that LANL scientists have. God forbid that you challenge how much time they spend at Hot Rocks or the fact that they are unable to attend one less conference this year.
January 21, 2013 at 5:05 PM"
Ya the all the problems with the labs come from the scientists always has been.
Ya the all the problems with the labs come from the scientists always has been.
January 22, 2013 at 6:45 AM
Yep, do away with those pesky scientists and the labs will be much better places. Empty, but better.
Did everyone notice that Charlie McMillan finally stopped using the Grecian Formula. That low score really made him show his age.
Did everyone notice that Charlie McMillan finally stopped using the Grecian Formula. That low score really made him show his age.
January 22, 2013 at 4:56 PM
Yeah, he went from looking like young debonair Pierce Brosnan to a Donald Sutherland overnight. Humm, only his hairdresser and 9,560 direct employees know for sure. Come on Charlie, your old OK, admit it, what a con artist.
Charlie McMillan
Gonna drop the news today abut the LANL future and how great LANS is and so on. Not much will be said.
The information content in All-Hands meetings has become less and less each year. I doubt Charlie had anything important to say to the demoralized and broken workforce at today's meeting. Go back to sleep.
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