“Today I received the Department of Energy’s Inspector General’s Special Inquiry Report Relating to the Department of Energy’s Response to a Compromise of Personnel Data at the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) Albuquerque Service Center.  I appreciate the work of the Inspector General in completing this comprehensive investigation and his thorough report that has allowed me to get all of the facts.

“Before addressing the report, I would like to once again apologize to the 1,502 employees who we did not properly notify of the theft of their personal information.  These employees were not well served by this Department.  I would like to assure them that we will fix our mistakes and move forward.

“I take very seriously the management of this Department, and this report shows an unacceptable failure of communication within the Department during this incident.  While there were several senior managers who knew about the theft of personal information, neither me, nor my deputy were notified for several months.

“The Inspector General (IG) outlined six recommendations to prevent this type of failure in the future.  I agree that we must act immediately and I have directed the Deputy Secretary to institute them as quickly as possible. 

“I expect all action on the IG recommendations to be completed by September 30, 2006, and have asked the Deputy Secretary to report to me upon completion of those actions.

“I have already begun acting on the sixth recommendation by issuing a letter of reprimand to a senior level employee and the Department may conduct further disciplinary action as deemed necessary.

“In addition, I have directed the Under Secretary for the NNSA to immediately do the following:

1. Put in place a system in which the Under Secretary ensures information is communicated in a timely manner to myself and the Deputy Secretary and to the relevant Department of Energy offices to include the Department’s General Counsel, the Chief Information Officer, the Office of Public Affairs, the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Affairs, the Chief Financial Officer, and the Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence; and
2. Put in place a system in which the Under Secretary ensures Congress is notified in a timely fashion of appropriate matters, including serious incidents such as the cyber intrusion at the Albuquerque Service Center.

One thing that is absolutely clear from this Inspector General’s Report is that this Department must continue to strive to work as a single, cohesive unit.  We must continue to build a better reporting mechanism to ensure that this type of communication breakdown does not happen again.  In order to do this, we will need to overcome actual and perceived barriers and obstacles that have long hamstrung this Department.  We must over-communicate both internally and with our stakeholders, and work as managers to guarantee that our employees are treated with the utmost respect.  In short, we must regain and retain their trust. 

“With these actions, the Department is putting this incident behind it and moving forward.” 

Summary of the Special Inquiry Report Relating to the Department of Energy’s Response to a Compromise of Personal Data (pdf)

Media contact(s):
Craig Stevens, (202) 586-4940