should appoint someone to perform this role, reporting directly to the deputy secretary (see footnote on page 4). Senior DOE managers have shown visible support for policies and procedures and the ability to step in to resolve deadlocks, but these actions are the equivalent of short-term fire fighting, which may be insufficient to sustain continued process improvement. The escalation of organizational deadlocks and internal disputes up to senior management for resolution is an indication of how the system is not working. The new policies and procedures demonstrate substantial progress in DOE, but the committee is not confident that these changes will be permanent without a strong champion to implement and solidify these procedures across the complex (see footnote on page 4).

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