RICHLAND — The Department of Energy at Hanford downgraded its performance assessment of the contractor building the site’s $17 billion vitrification plant because of ongoing criminal and civil investigations, according to a recently released report.
An official assessing the performance of the contractor, Bechtel National, said the company would not be recommended for similar work in the future given its performance, according to the Department of Energy Office of Inspector General’s latest semiannual report to Congress.
The report said it was Bechtel’s performance rating for 2018 and early 2019 that was downgraded as a result of the Office of Inspector General’s ongoing criminal and civil investigations.
The nature of the investigations, which are being coordinated with the U.S. Department of Justice office in Spokane, has not been made public. However, the Department of Justice did tell vitrification plant workers in 2017 to preserve all information and emails regarding charging for labor, recording time worked, overtime and related matters.
The emailed instructions came after the Justice Department reached settlements with the two most recent Hanford tank farm contractors over allegations of time card fraud, with that investigation continuing over several years. The contractors denied wrongdoing.
Because of the Bechtel investigations DOE Hanford officials issued downgraded Contractor Performance Assessment Ratings for the period that ended early this year, according to the IG report to Congress.
DOE declined to make public its document with the ratings, saying it was business sensitive.
“Bechtel National remains fully committed to and accountable for the successful delivery of the vitrification plant project,” said Bechtel spokeswoman Staci West. “We are aligned with DOE in safely bringing the vit plant online and treating low-activity (radioactive) tank waste by the end of 2023.”
Bechtel was downgraded from “satisfactory” to “marginal” in the “schedule” category, according to the latest IG report.
The “cost control” category remained at a “marginal” rating. The rating had been downgraded from “satisfactory” to “marginal” in the DOE rating for 2017, also because of the ongoing investigations by the Office of Inspector General.
The earlier semiannual report to Congress, which covered the six months ending in March 2019, said that downgraded ratings for 2017 resulted in about $80 million in provisional and also incentive payments for performance being withheld from Bechtel.
Provisional payments are made as a contractor makes progress toward meeting a goal, with any adjustments made when the contractor meets or misses the goal.
Bechtel was awarded a contract to build the Hanford nuclear reservation’s vitrification plant in late 2000 and is working toward a deadline set in a federal court consent decree to start treating, or glassifying, waste at the plant by the end of 2023.
