The Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Lawrence Livermore
AND OBJECTIVE National Laboratory (LLNL) supports the maintenance of a safe,
secure, and reliable nuclear weapon stockpile and provides
expertise toward the prevention of the proliferation of weapons of
mass destruction and terrorist attacks. LLNL is a National Nuclear
Security Administration (NNSA) site operated by the University of
California.
In support of its core mission, Livermore maintains a protective
force that is trained and equipped to secure its facilities and
operations. For the past five years, the Laboratory’s protective
force has maintained a supply room that provides equipment
required for Security Police Officers (SPOs) to carry out their
duties. We were told by a knowledgeable Livermore employee
that about $380,000 in Government funds was expended annually
on Government property that is issued by the supply room to the
Laboratory’s SPOs.
In February 2006, the Office of Inspector General received an
allegation that the LLNL protective force supply room was being
mismanaged. Specifically, it was alleged that: (1) there was no
organized method of accountability and distribution of equipment;
(2) equipment was scattered throughout the supply room with no
apparent system of organization; (3) orders for equipment were
written down on scratch paper, with no formal ordering or order
tracking system; (4) there were instances where equipment ordered
for specific individuals was not received or was received but given
to other officers; and, (5) when equipment was issued, it was not
documented. In addition, concern was expressed that, because of
the poor property controls, there was a strong possibility for
equipment to be diverted and resold outside the Laboratory.
The objective of this inspection was to review the adequacy ofinternal controls associated with LLNL’s protective force supply
room. To provide context for this review, we also conducted
limited reviews of the protective force supply rooms at two other
NNSA facilities, Los Alamos National Laboratory (Los Alamos)
and Sandia National Laboratory-New Mexico (Sandia).
