NAPA Study Of Nat’l Labs Recommend More Strategic Approach

Weapons Complex Monitor

December 10, 2012

NAPA Study Of Nat’l Labs Recommend More Strategic Approach

A forthcoming National Academy of Public Administration report concludes that the Department of Energy needs to be more strategic in how it manages its laboratories, DOE Office of Management Director Ingrid Kolb said last week at the Energy Facility Contractors Group semiannual meeting. NAPA is expected to release its Congressionally mandated study in January, but Kolb outlined the initial findings last week, noting that one of the group’s main recommendations will be to establish an external commission that would examine how the Department is strategically planning work done at the laboratories. The study was mandated by Fiscal Year 2012 omnibus appropriations legislation. “They particularly wanted to emphasize that the labs should be focused on work that supports national needs,” Kolb said. “They thought we were a little too focused on just the science world, just the NNSA world, just the energy world. They want to see more integration.”

Kolb said NAPA is also recommending that other commissions be created to look at how the Department is funding infrastructure improvements at the laboratories, including using third party financing alternatives, that the funds distribution system for the labs be streamlined, and more clarity provided on the role of Contractor Assurance Systems. “I think it’s a very good idea since CAS seems to mean different things to different people,” she said. Kolb also said the NAPA study also urged DOE to move to more “outcome-based” assessments of laboratory performance rather than more transaction-based oversight. “The Office of Science uses such a system,” she said, “but other systems in DOE get much more down in the weeds with lots of performance indicators.”