POGO's take on LANL contract
Charles F. McMillan, director of the Los Alamos lab, sent a memo to his 6,000 employees last week that stressed the positive, despite having received one of the worst fee reductions in the department's history.
"Although this was a very tough year for the laboratory, I am optimistic that next year will be better," he wrote. "I am determined to do all that I can to make it so."
Outside analysts and watchdog groups said the reduction in profits was surprisingly tough, especially given the Energy Department's history of letting contractors escape accountability for errors and failures.
"This was supposed to be one of the top research laboratories in the nation, but they lost classified documents, couldn't manage their plutonium inventories and failed to control costs on major projects," said Peter Stockton, a senior investigator for the Project on Government Oversight and a former advisor to the office of the secretary of Energy. "The new management team was supposed to fix all of those problems, but it looks like it's the same old story out there."
http://phys.org/news/2015-01-million-lab-contractor.html
Charles F. McMillan, director of the Los Alamos lab, sent a memo to his 6,000 employees last week that stressed the positive, despite having received one of the worst fee reductions in the department's history.
"Although this was a very tough year for the laboratory, I am optimistic that next year will be better," he wrote. "I am determined to do all that I can to make it so."
Outside analysts and watchdog groups said the reduction in profits was surprisingly tough, especially given the Energy Department's history of letting contractors escape accountability for errors and failures.
"This was supposed to be one of the top research laboratories in the nation, but they lost classified documents, couldn't manage their plutonium inventories and failed to control costs on major projects," said Peter Stockton, a senior investigator for the Project on Government Oversight and a former advisor to the office of the secretary of Energy. "The new management team was supposed to fix all of those problems, but it looks like it's the same old story out there."
http://phys.org/news/2015-01-million-lab-contractor.html
Comments
POGO gets it. Most of the problems of the past two or three years are owned by Charlie's management team, and it has led to a situation that is more broken today than before the contract change. Now let's see if NNSA gets it and cleans house.
Neither one of the claims to arbiter the scientific success. What Stockton rightfully points out is the mess created by LANS. If you define LANS as a scientific operation, then the Lord should help you.
January 14, 2015 at 5:45 AM
Your grammar is unclear and nonsensical at best. The verb form of the noun "arbiter" is "to arbitrate," which I assume you meant but could not quite get to. Oh well, scientific institutions unfortunately employ a lot of uneducated and linguistically challenged people.
Charlie "GQ" McMillan can dress it all up in the same fashion as his fine silk suits and Gucci shoes by using weasel-words in his memo to lab staff but I strongly suggest that those people who want the real story take the time to read the NNSA report on Charlie's total lack of leadership.
To think that LANS management have been giving such huge raises to themselves over the last few years while the staff salaries stagnate only adds injury to the insult that is LANS. It's time for Charlie McMillan and his upper management team to go but I doubt they have either the dignity or the integrity to do the right thing.
January 14, 2015 at 9:31 PM
Great comment. What a thoughtful contribution to the discussion.
"The new management team was supposed to fix all of those problems, but it looks like it's the same old story out there."
POGO gets it. Most of the problems of the past two or three years are owned by Charlie's management team, and it has led to a situation that is more broken today than before the contract change. Now let's see if NNSA gets it and cleans house.
January 13, 2015 at 11:33 AM
POGO is not alone in this assessment, and it just adds to the already high stack of reasons to subject the hard working staff to the pain of yet another contract transition. The complete failure of the current Laboratory leadership may, or may not, lead to the long overdue and badly needed NNSA housecleaning; however, in either case, the staff will be the ones that suffer the most for the leadership failures. What makes this whole debacle even sadder is that most of the failures were avoidable if the leadership had been competent. NNSA was warned that Charlie was not up to the job, but chose not to act on those warnings. Meanwhile, the staff will get the brunt of the turmoil of the impending contract change, while Charlie and the PADs each walk away several million dollars richer.
Insiders Tyler Pryzbylek, Tom DAgostino, and Bodner and their incompetent DC successors did more to subvert the stockpile than POGo propogandist observers..