Better data for Russian facility needed

Tucked away in Russia's remote agricultural region of Shchuch'ye are 5,400 tons of the deadly nerve agent VX, about 14% of Russia's total chemical weapons arsenal. The site has been secured, but the lingering threat of theft and diversion of the stored weapons convinced Congress to authorize, since 1992, more than $1 billion for the Cooperative Threat Reduction program to help Russia build a weapons destruction facility at Shchuch'ye. A recent Government Accountability Office study finds that construction of key buildings at the destruction site has fallen behind schedule mainly because of difficulties working with Russian subcontractors. Since October 2005, these delays have cost the Pentagon more than $3 million a month, and these costs will continue until a crucial subcontract is awarded. The facility, once slated to open this year, will probably not begin destroying weapons until 2009. And GAO fears that uncertainty of Russian construction progress at the site, changing and unpredictable regulations, and several technical issues could cause further delays and increase costs. Exacerbating the problems, GAO finds, is the Pentagon's U.S. contractor's inability to develop a reliable Earned Value Management (EVM) system. Such a system would act as an early warning of schedule delays and cost overruns. GAO recommends that the Pentagon set aside a portion of the contractor's award fee until its EVM system produces reliable data.