The Department of Energy’s Office of Inspector General has issued a report on BPA’s procedures for acquiring transmission materials and equipment. The audit was conducted between April 2008 and August 2009 as part of the department’s regular audit process.

BPA generally agrees with the IG recommendations because they are consistent with the Enterprise Process Improvement Process the agency initiated two years prior to the audit. The IG made two recommendations.

• Ensure that program officials and acquisition management are accountable for performing best buy analyses, establishing controls and evaluating contract extensions.
• Use a standard format for summarizing contract award decisions, including the best buy analysis.

BPA does not, however, agree with many of the findings and specifically disagrees with the dollar impact and the underlying conclusions that BPA ratepayers were financially harmed.

The IG report implies that cost is the only factor in purchasing components for the power system. In order to ensure safe reliable electrical service, system components must meet specific technical engineering specifications.

BPA has detailed purchasing procedures and routinely goes to considerable lengths to ensure that the components purchased and installed as part of the power system meet the agency’s specific engineering and technical specifications. In the interest of system safety and reliability, a BPA project manager can specify an electrical component even though the item may not be the cheapest, and the contracting officer will negotiate a fair price for the component. These procedures have allowed BPA to maintain a system that has a high level of system reliability and safety.

• IG's final report (243KB)
• IG Response (21KB)
• Technical Appendix (41KB)