Department of Energy

" The Department of Energy (DOE) spends 90 percent of its annual budget-which totaled $27 billion in fiscal year 2011-on the contractors that carry out its diverse missions and manage its sites. These management and operating contractors also provide sites' support functions, such as procuring goods, managing human resources, and maintaining facilities. With a unique contractor at each site, support functions have traditionally been managed in a decentralized, or fragmented, manner. In light of today's pressures to trim budgets and find efficiencies, GAO was asked to review support functions at the 17 National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) and Office of Science sites and determine (1) the costs of providing support functions for fiscal years 2007 through 2011; (2) efforts undertaken during that period to streamline sites' support functions, as well as additional opportunities and challenges, if any; and (3) the extent to which cost savings from streamlining efforts can be quantified. GAO reviewed data and documents and spoke with DOE, NNSA, and Science officials and with contractors at eight sites-the four largest by budget from NNSA and Science. "