Office of the Inspector General Semiannual Report to Congress (NUREG-1415, Vol. 23, No. 2)

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• Publication Information
• A Message from the Inspector General

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Publication Information

Date Published: April 2011
Reporting Period: October 1, 2010 – March 31, 2011

Office of the Inspector General
U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission
Washington, DC 20555

Availability Notice

A Message from the Inspector General

I am pleased to present this Semiannual Report to Congress on the activities and accomplishments of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) Office of the Inspector General (OIG) from October 1, 2010, to March 31, 2011.

Our work reflects the legislative mandate of the Inspector General Act, which is to identify and prevent fraud, waste, and abuse through the conduct of audits and investigations relating to NRC programs and operations. The audits and investigations highlighted in this report demonstrate our commitment to ensuring integrity and efficiency in NRC's programs and operations.

The NRC continues to perform its critical agency functions to ensure the safe and secure civilian use of byproduct, source, and special nuclear materials. During this reporting period, the NRC OIG continued its focus on critical agency operations to include NRC's Implementation of 10 CFR Part 21: reporting of defects and noncompliance, NRC's non-concurrence process, and the Inspector General's evaluation of the NRC's most serious management and performance challenges. Our efforts to work with the NRC to identify risks and vulnerabilities early on will afford the agency the opportunity to take any necessary corrective action.

During this semiannual period, we issued nine audit reports. As a result of this work, OIG made a number of recommendations to improve the effective and efficient operation of NRC's safety, security, and corporate management programs. OIG also opened 32 investigations and completed 12 cases. Six of the open cases were referred to the Department of Justice, and 25 allegations were referred to NRC management for action.

The NRC OIG remains committed to the integrity, efficiency, and effectiveness of NRC programs and operations, and our audits, investigations, and other activities highlighted in the report demonstrate this ongoing commitment. Those efforts were recently recognized with the granting of an Award for Excellence by the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency to an audit team for its report on NRC's Oversight of Construction at Nuclear Facilities. I would like to acknowledge our auditors, investigators, and support staff for their superior work and commitment to the mission of our office.

Finally, the success of the NRC OIG would not be possible without the collaborative efforts between my staff and agency managers to address OIG findings and to implement the corrective actions recommended by my office. I wish to thank them for their dedication and support, and I look forward to their continued cooperation as we work together to ensure the integrity of agency operations.

Hubert T. Bell
Inspector General