United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1998-07-29 monographic deposited born digital 16 p. GA 1.13:RCED-98-223 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-98-223 P0b002ee18039a016 f:rc98223 DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-RCED-98-223 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-RCED-98-223 RCED-98-223 Strategic planning Contractor performance Program evaluation Contractor payments DOE Environmental Management Program Savannah River (SC) Hanford (WA) Idaho Falls (ID) Rocky Flats (CO) Letter Report RCED Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the performance-based incentives at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Hanford, Idaho Falls, Rocky Flats, and Savannah River sites to determine: (1) the extent to which DOE has incorporated lessons learned in developing its fiscal year (FY) 1998 performance-based incentives; (2) whether these incentives incorporate the baseline measures in DOE's 10-year plan for environmental cleanup, and how fees are allocated to the incentives; and (3) how DOE evaluates completed incentive measures and determines their effectiveness.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) during the past year, DOE has taken steps to correct the problems identified in the Office of the Inspector General reports and its own assessment of performance-based incentives; (2) these steps have included issuing guidance, conducting training, and incorporating lessons learned into the FY 1998 incentives; (3) however, DOE believes that FY 1998 represents a transitional period to better performance-based incentives because it plans to continue to make improvements to the incentives; (4) for FY 1998, at three of the four sites GAO visited, DOE's performance-based incentives incorporated the baseline measures in the Department's 10-year plan for environmental cleanup and were generally linked to both DOE's strategic plan and the site-specific plans; (5) the fourth site, Idaho Falls, has not yet developed performance incentives in environmental management, but its goals and objectives do incorporate the 10-year plan's baseline measures; (6) furthermore, each of the four sites generally allocates fees to individual performance incentives in proportion to their relative importance and on the basis of the site's missions and objectives; (7) DOE evaluates completed actions that were tied to performance-based incentives through reviews by its technical, financial, and contracting personnel to determine whether the contractor satisfied the criteria and earned the amount of fee to be paid; (8) overall, DOE maintains that performance-based incentives have been effective in achieving desired end results; (9) however, it is not clear whether the successes reported in the departmentwide assessment have been due to the performance-based incentives or to the accompanying increased emphasis on program management; and (10) furthermore, it is too soon to assess the effectiveness of the FY 1998 incentives because the evaluation of these incentives will not be complete until the end of the fiscal year. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-98-223/html/GAOREPORTS-RCED-98-223.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-RCED-98-223/pdf/GAOREPORTS-RCED-98-223.pdf GAO/RCED-98-223 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-RCED-98-223 Letter Report GAO/RCED-98-223; Department of Energy: Lessons Learned Incorporated Into Performance-Based Incentive Contracts; Strategic planning Contractor performance Program evaluation Contractor payments DOE Environmental Management Program Savannah River (SC) Hanford (WA) Idaho Falls (ID) Rocky Flats (CO)