Investigations

Report Card Slams Budget Mismanagement, Safety Concerns at Fermilab as New Contractor Takes Over

A federal report card gave Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory barely passing grades, continuing recent developments that included the exit of its director and a high-profile whistleblower report documenting a series of potential problems at the national laboratory.

The recent assessment identified several key performance deficiencies by the previous management contractor that was replaced in January at the particle physics and accelerator laboratory in suburban Batavia.

The 2024 fiscal year evaluation awarded poor marks for program management, contractor leadership, environment/safety/health, business systems and facilities maintenance, according to documents obtained from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) through a public-records request.

The Office of Science in the DOE evaluates the performance of contractors managing its national laboratories each year to determine performance fees and contract extensions, a process that ties work quality to financial incentives and publicly released grades. The review aims to recognize successes and provide constructive feedback for improvement.

Fermilab scored a B+ overall, the lowest possible passing grade. It was one of only two labs out of 10 that recorded a grade of C+ or below for any of the goals tracked by the Office of Science in 2024, records show.

Its business systems grade of a C was the lowest mark for all of these laboratories. Fermilab ranked at the bottom in all but one category.

The low grades are the latest blemish for Fermilab, which in August forced employees to take a week off in order to address a major budget shortfall.

The evaluation rated Fermi Research Alliance (FRA), which was replaced in January by Fermi Forward Discovery Group (FermiForward) as the contractor appointed by the DOE to manage the lab.

FermiForward consists of the University of Chicago, Universities Research Association, Amentum Environment & Energy, and Longenecker & Associates.

‘Critically examines past approaches’

The DOE identified a number of problems in its 2024 analysis of Fermilab. Among them, site access issues improved but remained challenging for foreign visitors, particularly energy frontier physicists who collaborate with the European Organization for Nuclear Research, according to the report. FRA faced budget constraints, personnel shortages and high turnover after the COVID-19 outbreak.

The performance evaluation identified budget mismanagement over the past two years that required “drastic actions,” with some incidents highlighting past and current safety challenges.

The management system, which was developed to track DOE contract goals, remained ineffective at proactively mitigating issues. It lacked cohesive systems for risk management and compliance tracking, according to the report.

The Fermi Research Alliance’s financial and business systems failed to manage budget overruns with the contractor showing weak supervisory controls and hiring excess staff despite fiscal constraints, according to the review.

The Office of Science sets very high expectations for a passing grade and does not equate performance below that level as necessarily unsatisfactory, but as offering opportunity for improvement.

In a written statement, Fermilab responded that its growth confronts aging infrastructure challenges as leadership updates operations to support major construction projects for future research, expansion of quantum and artificial intelligence, and maintaining the lab’s research status.

“The new management-and-operations contractor, Fermi Forward Discovery Group, is committed to driving operational and cultural change by leveraging the expertise and experience of industrial partners in areas such as safety and successful completion of large-scale projects,” media relations manager Tracy Marc wrote.

The University of Chicago acknowledged some issues.

“Fermilab’s ambitious work has come with challenges, underscoring the need to strengthen the lab’s operations,” University of Chicago wrote in a statement.

The lab management has received the lowest grades of the national laboratories under the Office of Science for years, records show.

In the 2021 fiscal year, Fermilab received an overall failing grade. In 2023, it was hit with a $1 million fee reduction due to the lab’s performance, according to the whistleblower report. A fee reduction of more than $1 million was also reported in 2024, according to the DOE evaluation.

The fee reduction system is designed to motivate contractors to deliver high-quality results and meet performance goals.

Some observers were surprised when a new contract was awarded to a group with similar composition and leadership as the Fermi Research Alliance after years of underperforming.

DOE Office of Science spokesperson Shannon Shea called new management group FermiForward “a different legal entity with different partnering arrangements and commitments to Fermilab’s mission,” and said its expectations and desired outcomes are different from its predecessor.

“As part of contract transition, it is expected that the new contractor critically examines past approaches and realigns them as needed to meet these outcomes,” Shea said.

In a statement, the University of Chicago said Fermilab has advanced key initiatives and large-scale projects with support from Congress and DOE.

Fermilab faces the challenges in executing its current physics program while managing a $5 billion-plus project portfolio for next-generation neutrino science, according to the DOE. Effective management is crucial for responsible use of taxpayer dollars and coordinating with international partners contributing about $1 billion in in-kind support.

“We have listened closely to the concerns that some colleagues and friends in the Fermilab community have raised, rooted in their passionate support of Fermilab’s distinctive scientific mission,” the University of Chicago’s statement reads. “We take the U.S. Department of Energy’s Performance Evaluation & Management Plan scorecard extremely seriously.”

‘An issue that has persisted over several years’

The low grades in recent years from the DOE could indicate frustration with unresolved issues at Fermilab, according to James Decker.

“I think when the department comes down hardest with its grades, it’s often because there’s an issue that has persisted over several years and hasn’t been fixed,” Decker said.

Decker spent decades at DOE as the former principal deputy director for the Office of Science, where he worked closely with the national laboratories and regularly evaluated their performance and management. He has served on national laboratory advisory boards.

For about seven years of his career, Decker served as acting director of the Office of Science between presidential appointees. He estimates he testified in front of Congress more than 35 times.

About Fermilab’s failing grade in the 2021 performance evaluation, Decker was quoted in the journal Science, calling the it, “one of the most scathing I have seen.”

According to Decker, the laboratory analysis process shifted to a more rigorous system for grading a lab’s performance, keeping the process transparent by telling the contractor up front about the expectations during his time at DOE.

Grading labs can be difficult when using the same process to compare multi-program national labs to those with a single research focus like Fermilab, Decker said. Also, the dependencies between different scoring goals mean incidents in one area can adversely affect performance metrics across multiple categories.

Both Fermilab and the University of Chicago benefit from their role in the national laboratory process, allowing both an opportunity to attract the highest quality talent, Decker said.

The new contract requires FermiForward to manage the lab effectively, and to use appropriate technologies and management systems to improve cost efficiency and performance.

It can take a long time to fix serious problems at a national lab, Decker said, forcing them to spend money and devote resources to bring the systems up to date. Experienced staff might also be reluctant to change.

“You have people that have worked at the laboratory for the last 30 years, and all of a sudden you tell them, ‘You got to change the way you do your work,’” Decker said  “Why should I? This is the way we’ve always done it.”

Modernizing systems can be expensive, and the contractors sometimes have to choose between research or required updates, Decker said.

Decker expects the new contractor to improve issues identified in the latest performance evaluation with the resources they have, but stressed change takes time.

He did not review the contract or proposal from FermiForward, but suspected the new contractors that are part of FermiForward but not FRA were most likely selected to improve the quality of management and operations. He said both new companies in FermiForward have a good reputation, and Longenecker knows the DOE and has expertise that should help improve areas including safety.

University of Chicago said the new contractors were selected for, “broad operational expertise.”

Beyond operational efficiency, Decker believes the value of research from these facilities has a real impact on the larger world of science.

Fundamental research like the kind performed at Fermilab takes time to yield practical benefits, Decker said, but can lead to major technological advancements in a variety of fields including medicine.

‘From a hostile environment to criminal behavior’

The last few years have certainly been eventful for the Fermilab staff. The national laboratory stopped much of its work for a week last year, though major research projects and maintenance continued during the limited operations period. Management shortened a previously announced closure connected to budget problems.

The whistleblower group in August identified a pattern of problematic management and behavior at the laboratory that included accusations of over-the-top sexual harassment, an employee carrying a loaded weapon on the job and “chaotic” finances.

The group updated its report in November, identifying new concerns that did not appear in its initial dispatch. The new section was titled, “How DOE inaction led Fermilab to go rogue, from a hostile environment to criminal behavior.”

The new amendment detailed allegations of sexism affecting promotion of an employee. It criticized unfair shift distribution and mishandled workers’ compensation claims in the infrastructure services division.

The unidentified authors wrote about the new management selection, “DOE reinstated FRA, albeit under a different name, i.e. Fermi Forward Discovery Group, LLC, as core of the Management & Operating (M&O) contractor of Fermilab.”

The report also said Fermilab did not include expensive managers in layoffs when it reduced staff in November, and the authors predicted future lawsuits because of some of the procedures used to terminate tenured positions. It characterized the response by the Fermilab director to the initial whistleblower report as, “underwhelming.”

In response to the whistleblower update, media relations manager Tracy Marc wrote it “is not a validated document and contains inaccuracies and mischaracterizations,” without identifying specific concerns.

The updated document also detailed the case of a researcher who used to work at the laboratory.

Furkan Dolek, 36, was arrested in March 2024 by the Kane County Sheriff’s Office after Fermilab reported him for trespassing. Dolek lived at Fermi Village, on-site housing for researchers and academics involved with Fermilab.

Dolek was not a Fermilab employee, but rather a user who accesses facilities and resources for research purposes.

Reports indicate cannabis was found during an inspection of his residence by the Fermilab fire department. According to the case report, Dolek was given verbal notice to leave the property because marijuana is illegal at a federal facility.

Dolek, a physicist specializing in data with numerous academic publications, denied the cannabis was his, records show. Fermilab staff told Dolek he had to leave the premises, and had him arrested when he refused to leave. Dolek “had printed resources from Wikipedia in regards to the Fourth Amendment and the U.S. Constitution,” before the arrest, according to the police report.

The sheriff’s office charged Dolek with two counts of trespassing. Records show the court at times had difficulty providing Turkish translation services for Dolek during the bench trial.

Kane County kept Dolek in custody for more than 12 hours, records show. Fermilab informed deputies that Dolek’s vehicle would be towed following his arrest. He had to make numerous appearances in Kane County court during the nearly yearlong case, records show.

Dolek said he believes these events are retaliation for exposing financial and scientific misconduct taking place at Fermilab. Both Dolek and the whistleblower report criticized Bonnie Fleming, deputy director for science and technology and chief research officer at Fermilab, for her alleged role in this case.

There was confusion about the jurisdiction in this matter. Wilson Hall, the location on Fermilab’s campus where Dolek was arrested, is near the border of Kane and DuPage counties.

WTTW News asked both sheriff’s departments about arrest authority on Fermilab property. The Kane County sheriff provided a closeup of Wilson Hall from an iPhone that he said showed the building was in Kane County. A DuPage County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson said anything in a map of DuPage County, including Wilson Hall, would be part of their jurisdiction.

Charges in the case were dismissed in February, court records show, because the events of the case happened in DuPage County even though the building where Dolek was arrested was located in both Kane and DuPage counties. Dolek currently faces no charges in DuPage County, according to a spokesperson from the state’s attorney’s office.

Fleming did not respond to a request for comment on this story.

When asked for a response to its role in this case, Fermilab said, “Questions about individuals who are working or who have worked at Fermilab are personnel matters that we cannot comment on.”

Contact Jared Rutecki: @JaredRutecki | [email protected]

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