National Nuclear Security Administration: Use of Line Items in Management and Operating Contracts Could Be Improved

The National Nuclear Security Administration spends over $20 billion a year managing nine contracts across the nuclear security enterprise, and in 2014 began offering contract line items to give specific projects more visibility and separate performance tracking. GAO found only five of NNSA's 21 major capital construction projects actually use these line items, more than a decade after they became available.

Officials told GAO that line items help with transparency and separate contractor fee plans for high-risk projects, but require extra administrative work to implement. NNSA has no documented criteria for deciding when to use them, leaving contracting officers to make inconsistent case-by-case calls, and the agency hasn't formally assessed lessons learned from the years it has had the tool.

NNSA plans to spend nearly $200 billion over the next decade modernizing nuclear weapons infrastructure. GAO recommended NNSA document its criteria for using line items and capture lessons learned; NNSA said it plans to act on both.

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