Federal Officials Question Financial Discrepancies at Savannah River Site Near Augusta

Federal officials are questioning serious accounting discrepancies at a massive federal site that processes nuclear materials near Augusta.

The U.S. Department of Energy's inspector general says the Washington Savannah River Company can't properly account for $1.4 billion spent at the Savannah River Site in 2007.

It says auditors at the company failed to properly approve procurements and omitted information, and inappropriately changed information in its internal audits to hide discrepancies. The report says the company's actions violated procedures designed to detect costs that the federal government might not otherwise pay for, over the protests from the auditors themselves. It also blasts the DOE for inadequate oversight of the process.

"I have a feeling that over the years that a lackadaisical attitude has developed in managing all this money, and the company essentially thought that they could do as they pleased," says Tom Clements, a spokesman for Friends of the Earth, an environmental group.

The Washington Savannah River Company lost its contract to manage the site last year, after about 18 years there. It's unclear if the issues brought up in the audit were the reason for that.

A spokesman at the company declined to comment on the report.

Officials with the U.S. Department of Energy were not available for comment.

The Washington Savannah River Company still manages the removal and disposal of liquid waste there, employing about 2000 people. It managed about 6500 other employees under the management contract it lost a year ago.

Federal officials in December awarded the liquid waste contract to Savannah River Remediation, whose parent company is the same as the Washington Savannah River Company, but a losing bidder has challenged the award.