Inspection Report: DOE-OIG-22-20

January 12, 2022

Property Management at the Hanford Site

The Hanford Site (Hanford) is a Department of Energy cleanup site managed by the Office of Environmental Management.  The Department’s Richland Operations Office is tasked with overseeing property management at Hanford and relied upon Mission Support Alliance, LLC (MSA) to manage that program.  Federal regulations characterize many of the items utilized at Hanford as High-Risk or Sensitive Property (HRSP) because of the potential impact on public safety or proliferation concerns.  Title 41 Code of Federal Regulations 102, Federal Management Regulation, defines sensitive property as items that require special control and accountability due to unusual rates of loss, theft, misuse, or national security or export control considerations.  Title 41 Code of Federal Regulations 109, The Department of Energy Property Management Regulation, states that high-risk personal property must be “disposed of in other than the routine manner.”  We initiated this inspection to determine whether MSA appropriately accounted for and dispositioned excessed property.  We found that MSA did not properly account for or disposition excessed HRSP.  Specifically, we found that MSA did not: (1) appropriately characterize HRSP items; (2) always designate property as high-risk or export-controlled when required or include restriction notices; (3) adequately account for Hanford Patrol Protection Force non-weapon HRSP; and (4) always document that excessed hard drives were sanitized or destroyed.  Therefore, MSA risked that unauthorized parties could have gained access to export-controlled items.  Further, sensitive information could have been released to the public where it could be used to damage the interests of the Nation, the Department, or its personnel.  We attributed these shortcomings to MSA’s incomplete application of Federal regulations and the Department’s insufficient oversight of MSA’s HRSP program.  Management agreed with our findings and recommendations, and its proposed corrective actions are consistent with our recommendations.