GAO: Lab oversight still needed due to the Quintana scandal

Anonymously contributed: ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ GAO: Lab oversight still needed due to the Quintana scandal The nonpartisan Government Accountability Office has also expressed reservations about changing the oversight mechanism at the weapons laboratories. While he declined to comment on the House legislation specifically, Eugene Aloise, GAO natural resources and environment director, told GSN that limiting the Energy Department’s ability to conduct independent oversight of the NNSA sites “just doesn’t make sense.” Between 2000 and 2007 there were more 50 security violations at the facilities, “35 of which severely impacted our national security,” Aloise said, referring to a period that included a 2006 incident in which a Los Alamos employee removed more than 1,000 pages of classified documents from the facility, among other incidents (see GSN, July 16, 2007). “Now things seem to be quiet,” Aloise said. As it is, Aloise said he is concerned the Energy Department’s health and safety office is not independent enough to adequately oversee the NNSA laboratories, and suggested that a hypothetical third entity entirely separate from the department would be a better solution. Having the nuclear agency regulate itself would only make matters worse, he said. http://www.nti.org/gsn/article/critics-look-administration-senate-quash-nnsa-reform-legislation/