November 16, 2012

Continuity of Operations Planning and Intelligence Readiness

National Security Presidential Directive-20, National Continuity Policy, establishes continuity requirements for all executive departments and agencies.  The Department of Energy (Department) developed Department Order 150.1, Continuity Programs, which establishes requirements to assist the Department with effectively responding to a wide range of events that may disrupt normal operations.  The Office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence (IN), a critical partner within the Department and the Intelligence Community, is responsible for providing timely intelligence to the Secretary of Energy and other executive branch agencies on threats to energy and nuclear information.  IN also provides support to the Director of National Intelligence and serves as liaison to the National Joint Terrorism Task Force.  In our report on Improvements Needed in the Department's Emergency Preparedness and Continuity of Operations Planning, (DOE/IG-0845, January 2011), we identified significant weaknesses in the Department's emergency preparedness and Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP) programs.  Because of the importance of carrying out the Department's key intelligence functions during a continuity event, we initiated this inspection to assess IN's COOP and intelligence readiness.  Our inspection revealed that although IN has made various changes to its COOP Implementation Plan to facilitate intelligence readiness, additional actions could be taken to enhance its capabilities during a continuity event.  Our review also identified certain issues with continuity communications (classified and unclassified), the results of which are included in a separate classified annex.

Topic: National Security & Safety