DOE Responds to Galvin Report Recommendations
In its quest to “reinvent” federal departments, the Administration has completed reviews of its largest federal laboratory complexes. This interagency review of DOD, DOE, and NASA laboratories is to be submitted to the National Science and Technology Council. As part of this effort, a Task Force led by Robert Galvin examined and reported on DOE’s national laboratories (see FYIs #17, #40.)
DOE’s 42-page response to the Galvin report, entitled, “Report of the Department of Energy for the Interagency Federal Laboratory Review,” was released on March 8. DOE intends to “use this examination as an instrument for change...[and] to meet the President’s goal...of improving the efficiency and effectiveness of these R&D institutions in meeting current and future national needs.”
The document reports that the Galvin Task Force “has clearly and forcefully validated the work of the DOE laboratories in the areas of energy, national security, environment, and fundamental science.” It adds that “On the question of management, however, the Task Force could hardly have expressed greater alarm. They concluded that the existing system of governance...is broken. The Department agrees, and has developed the following plan to fix it.”
DOE’s plan includes a roadmap of elements to be achieved, and a new management structure for the labs. “To help the Department and the laboratories work their way out of a thicket of cumbersome, inefficient, and non value-added interactions,” DOE has designed a “Management Improvement Roadmap.” Its elements include: reforming DOE’s system of orders and directives; achieving better health, environment and safety performance at lower cost; developing external regulation of the labs; reducing the burden of audits and appraisals; implementing commercial “best practice” procurement policies; establishing within DOE a new governing structure for the labs; and sharpening the labs’ focus on their strongest areas.
On the issue of lab management, DOE takes exception to the Galvin report’s recommendations. “The most provocative recommendation within the Galvin Task Force report,” DOE says, “is to `corporatize’ the laboratories...” The Department reports that it is “not persuaded that the specific model envisioned [by the Galvin Task Force] would be either practical in the near-term or sustainable over the long-term.” DOE plans to explore new governance options, while at the same time improving the current management system.
Improvements to the current system include establishing a new, corporate-level governing board within DOE. The Department believes that this “Laboratory Operating Board,” made up of senior DOE management officials and a subgroup of private sector advisors, “will address numerous governance issues identified in the Galvin Report.” It would meet quarterly, and be responsible for strategic direction and mission allocation for the labs, facility rationalization, right-sizing, and cost-containment.
