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Transcript of Secretary Bodman's June 14 Address

(Photo - Bodman) And so, with that as a backdrop, I’d like to discuss a few recent improvements that we have undertaken or that we have proposed for this department. Before I get into specifics, let me summarize what I believe will be the major outcomes of this effort.

First, it is my desire that together we will create a safer, more secure work environment in this department. Secondly, I believe that this organization can perform better and more efficiently through increased collaboration and decreased stove-piping. And, thirdly, I expect that this department will become a more responsible steward of taxpayers’ resources. I hope that we can do more for less.

Now you may not be surprised at the first set of reforms because it goes directly to my top priority: the safety and security of every member of this department. I believe I made this point during my very first talk to the members of this department some fifteen months ago, but it is no less true today than it was then. Whether you are a Federal employee or a contractor, I consider your personal safety to be my personal responsibility. I feel an ethical responsibility to take this seriously and to take it personally. And I want you to know that I do.

I expect, however, no less of each of you. I am quite concerned about our recent safety statistics, which suggest an increase in incidents or almost incidents across the complex. One accident or one incident, in my view, is one too many. I watch this very closely, and I have made it clear to every member of the DOE leadership team that we will turn this trend around.

As I outlined in a department-wide memo in March, we are taking steps to ensure that all rules and directives are adequately conveyed to everyone and that safety standards are reflected in performance plans for DOE employees—both Federal employees and contractors. In some cases we found that there were real problems with respect to communicating just what the standards were.

Additional steps also need to be taken. As such, I have asked the deputy secretary to look at how we might improve safety oversight in this department. We have developed an initial proposal, which includes steps to combine the current Office of Environment, Safety and Health with the Office of Security and Safety Performance Assurance into one corporate safety and security office. The specifics of this proposal have been shared with impacted employees, and we are currently revising it to reflect feedback from those employees, from any employees, including those who are listening today, as well as the views of our friends on Capitol Hill.

The idea here is to improve how we are running this vital function and to elevate its role throughout the department. And so the key outcomes that I expect from any changes in this area are first, well-crafted safety policies that address a wide array of functions that this department’s employees perform, secondly, stronger safety oversight at all levels of the department, and third better communication—of our successes and our failures within this area—and that we communicate that with individual offices and across the department.

Achieving a safer, more secure department will require more than a simple organizational change. It will also require, if you will, a shift of mindset. We all have to acknowledge that it is our responsibility to operate this department in a safe, secure and environmentally responsible way. That responsibility cannot and will not be dismissed or farmed out—whether to an external advisory group or quote to the "management," unquote, whoever that is. We are accountable to ourselves and to those whom we manage and lead.

This ethos of security must apply not only to our personal safety, but also to the protection of our classified data and sensitive information. Over the past week or so, there have been reports of several incidents that have resulted in the compromise of sensitive personal information of DOE Federal and contractor employees. I want you to know that I take these breaches very seriously. Our top priority when an incident like this occurs is to inform the impacted employees and assist them in taking steps to ensure that their information has not been misused. We have done that in this case—in some cases, I regret to say, months or years after the occurrence, because that’s when we learned about the occurrence.

But these incidents also emphasize the importance of comprehensive information security. The adequate protection of sensitive information is essential to our ability to meet our mission. And this is not just the responsibility of our IT professionals, whom I believe to be very capable. However, they are also very central to our efforts in accomplishing this goal. But it’s fair to say that our computer systems can only do so much. In effect, our cyber-security is only as strong as the weakest link—and that can just as easily be a person as a firewall. So, I ask you to join me in taking personal responsibility for protecting our sensitive data and the integrity of our systems.

And, in my view, this concept of individual accountability extends well beyond the realm of security. I believe there are other operational areas that could benefit from increased collaboration and oversight. And so, we have recently begun to examine just where and how this can be accomplished. This effort is moving forward under the title, under the rubric of functional accountability. It might also be called knocking down the stovepipes.   Read more...