Energy Dept. Contracting Is Faulted The Government Accountability Office cited major deficiencies in the Energy Department’s administration of large contracts and said the department cannot be sure it is getting what it is paying for. Without improvements in administration and training, GAO said, “The department is totally dependent on its contractors’ self-reports on their performance.” DOE’s contract management has been on GAO’s high-risk list since 1990, meaning it is considered vulnerable to waste, fraud and abuse. One of its largest contractors, the University of California, was fined $5 million this year for mismanagement at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico. GAO said the department has not independently verified contractors’ reports on their performance. Fifteen of 33 large contracts that were examined permitted contractors to earn performance incentives even if the contract exceeded expected costs, in violation of the Federal Acquisition Regulation. “DOE has relied on unvalidated contractor data to monitor contractors’ progress in executing major projects and to award fees for performance,” the report said. “This reliance on unvalidated data limits the department’s ability to ensure it gets what it is paying for.” The department generally agreed with GAO’s recommendations and said it had already addressed the identified problems.