EM crews recently placed a final radioactive waste shipment into the Idaho National Laboratory (INL) Site’s largest waste disposal area and will begin closing the facility, fulfilling a DOE commitment to the state of Idah - DoE. Image: Michael Vi/Shutterstock.com
The GAO has found personnel issues common in government—understaffing and a high percentage of onboard employees at or near retirement eligibility — at the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) that oversees nuclear waste cleanup activities such as remediating soil and groundwater and treating radioactive waste.
With 263 vacancies compared to 1,272 onboard employees, the office had a vacancy rate of nearly a fifth, with the rate about a third at several field offices, the GAO found. “EM has taken some actions to recruit, hire, develop, and retain personnel, but these have been insufficient to counter attrition”—which is 10.6 percent, compared with the government-wide average of 8.1 percent, it said.
“This attrition rate is expected to increase because 44 percent (563 staff) of all EM staff will be eligible to retire by the start of FY 2030,” GAO said, adding that as with vacancies, pending eligibility rates are especially high at several field offices, with one at 50 percent and another at 60 percent.
Both vacancy rates and pending retirement eligibility rates further are notably high in certain occupations deemed mission-critical, including general engineering, nuclear engineering and general physical science, the report added.
“EM, DOE, and others have repeatedly documented the need to strengthen EM’s workforce planning because of concerns about mission-critical positions and anticipated retirements. However, EM’s attempts to address these issues have proven ineffective. Workforce problems have recurred in multiple locations without EM having taken steps to adopt recommended strategies,” it said.
It said management agreed with recommendations including to develop a workforce plan that better follows leading strategic planning practices, such as developing hiring goals and succession planning.
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