Report stirs Y-12 security concerns

Audit finds plant slow to adopt citizenship verification system

By Frank Munger
Knoxville News Sentinel
Posted December 24, 2010 at midnight


OAK RIDGE - A federal audit found that Recovery Act-funded cleanup projects at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant were under budget, ahead of schedule and properly tracking the use of stimulus money.

However, auditors also found that Y-12 was slow to adopt required procedures for verifying the citizenship of contract workers on the projects, raising security concerns.

"This is significant given the risk of illegal alien workers gaining access to Y-12," David Sedillo, the report's author, wrote in a memorandum to the federal site office at the Oak Ridge plant.

According to the report, Y-12 didn't incorporate use of the "E-Verify" system in its American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) subcontracts until September 2010 - about 10 months after the requirement went into effect. The Department of Homeland Security designated E-Verify as the "electronic employment eligibility verification system" that must be used by all federal contractors.

"The system compares information obtained from an employee to data from the Department of Homeland Security and Social Security Administration records to confirm employment eligibility," the report said.

The report said the risk of illegal immigrants gaining access to Y-12 "is more than notional," citing a June 2005 Inspector General audit that found that in the past, illegal immigrants had gained access to Y-12 on multiple occasions.

Steven Wyatt, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration in Oak Ridge, acknowledged that Y-12 "could have been faster" in requiring subcontractors to use the E-Verify system, but he said there is "no evidence whatsoever" that illegal immigrants worked on Recovery Act projects.

"We are pleased that the IG audit noted the success that we have achieved in managing Recovery Act work at Y-12, with all projects ahead of schedule and under budget, and with no significant project management problems identified," Wyatt said in an e-mail response to the report. "Because of our excellent performance, we received an additional $29 million of follow-on Recovery Act-related work."

Wyatt said Y-12 has adopted a number of security measures in recent years to make sure that noncitizens don't gain access to the nuclear weapons facility.

"Since 2005, we have required positive proof of citizenship for all new workers on-site at Y-12. This requirement included each new worker to present either an active passport or certified birth certificate with additional photo identification," he said. "Also, all buildings and other areas associated with ARRA work were extensively pre-screened to identify and remove or segregate any classified information or materials prior to the beginning of Recovery Act work.

"Uncleared workers associated with these projects are under escort at all times; all other workers in areas involving access to classified information are required to have clearances that would provide a full background check that includes a full verification of citizenship."

Y-12 received $216 million in Recovery Act funding to perform seven cleanup projects, ranging from demolition of old buildings to cleaning up mercury in deteriorated storm sewers.

IG auditors evaluated three of the seven stimulus-funded projects, which accounted for $164 million of the total funding, and found each of them to be ahead of schedule and under budget. The auditors also found that Y-12 was in compliance with Recovery Act requirements for segregating the ARRA funds from other operating funds and also keeping up with the extensive reporting guidelines.

As of August 2010, Y-12 had awarded 428 subcontracts with a total value of $39 million to support the three projects the auditors reviewed, according to the report. Nine of those subcontracts were analyzed by the audit team.

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