WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) honored a team of federal and contractor employees for developing a best practice to improve contractor assurance systems (CAS) across the DOE complex.
The 17-member task team received the 2017 Energy Facility Contractors Group Annual Teamwork Award at EFCOG’s annual meeting this month. The team created the Effectiveness Validation Best Practice, which helps determine best practices for CAS for DOE contractors. DOE uses CAS to manage performance consistent with contract requirements, providing transparency between the Department and its contractors.
The team’s tool provides common attributes that DOE and contractors can use to validate CAS effectiveness. Access the.
In the future, the EFCOG CAS task group will be responsible for the Effectiveness Validation Best Practice. That group is led by Savannah River Nuclear Solutions Quality Assurance and Operational Excellence Director Darlene Murdoch. The group falls under the EFCOG Integrated Safety Management subgroup chaired by Savannah River Remediation Environmental, Safety, Health, and Quality Assurance and Contractor Assurance Director Patricia Allen, who received a team award for her work on the project.
“One of the key areas where the EFCOG and DOE partnership has been particularly valuable over the past decade has been contractor assurance." Allen said. “Developing tools geared toward continuously improving CAS processes will help improve facility and laboratory performance across the complex. That is our goal."
Washington River Protection Solutions Organizational Performance Improvement Manager John McDonald is co-chair of the EFCOG task team and chair of the EFCOG Safety Working Group. He said the tool contributes to improved mission execution and operational excellence.
“This was an outstanding team comprised of EFCOG and DOE subject-matter experts," McDonald said. “We were able to converge on the team goal and produce a quality product ahead of the schedule we had set for ourselves. It was a rewarding experience to be on this team."
Pat Worthington, EM Director of Health and Safety within the Office of Environment, Health, Safety and Security is co-chair of the EFCOG task team. Worthington said this project addresses several DOE and contractor initiatives related to CAS effectiveness.
“I applaud the team for executing an important initiative that resulted in delivering a Contractor Assurance Effectiveness Evaluation Best Practice to be used by contractors across the DOE complex," Worthington said. “After reviewing existing practices from the various DOE program areas, the team came to a general census on attributes that can be used to validate CAS effectiveness."
Five members of the award-winning team are pictured above, left to right: John Longenecker, Energy Facility Contractors Group (EFCOG) Managing Director and President of Longenecker and Associates; Patricia Allen, EFCOG Chair of the Integrated Safety Management and Quality Assurance (QA) group and Director of Environmental, Safety, Health, and QA and Contractor Assurance for Savannah River Remediation; Jan Preston, EFCOG Vice Chair of the Integrated Safety Management and Quality Assurance group and Project Director at Fluor Government Group for Environmental/Nuclear; John McDonald, EFCOG Chair of the Safety Working Group and Organizational Performance Improvement Manager for Washington River Protection Solutions; and Ray Skwarek, EFCOG Board of Directors and Environmental, Safety, Health, and QA Manager for URS | CH2M Oak Ridge.
Team members not pictured are Juan Alvarez, Deputy Laboratory Director for Battelle Energy Alliance, LLC; Brian Andrews, Feedback & Improvement Manager for Consolidated Nuclear Security; Mike Hassell, Director of Performance Assurance for CH2M HILL Plateau Remediation Company; Halter Steve, Senior Program Manager for Kansas City National Security Campus; Lori Fritz, Vice President for Mission Support Alliance; Sharon Steele, General Engineer for DOE; Scott Nicholson, Director for the Office of Safety and Quality Assurance for DOE at the Savannah River Site; Jeff Eichorst, Performance Assurance Engineer for DOE Office of River Protection; Danny Field, Industrial Hygienist, National Nuclear Security Administration Office of Safety; Todd LaPointe, South Carolina Safety and Security Director, DOE; Jim Hutton, EM Deputy Assistant Secretary for Safety, Security and Quality Assurance; and Robert Boston, Deputy Manager and Chief Operating Office for DOE Idaho Operations Office.
Source: U.S. Dept. of Energy, Office of Environmental Management
