July292009
The Inside Word
Another big TVA shakeup this week: Yesterday, the TVA’s Inspector General, Richard Moore, issued an independent report on the causes of the Kingston ash spill. Even in comparison to last week’s analysis from an Atlanta consulting firm, the Inspector General was tough on the TVA. Basically, he said what a lot of people outside of the TVA have been saying for months: the spill could have been avoided because the TVA had been receiving warnings about how it treated coal ash for years; in the aftermath of the spill, the TVA heavily resisted being transparent and informative, and instead focused on avoiding lawsuits; the TVA’s first “independent” analysis of the spill’s cause—the “slime layer” report from AECOM—was most probably bullshit; the TVA’s administration is dysfunctional and has been for a long time and thus wasn’t at all prepared to either foresee or deal with this kind of crisis. What’s shocking about the Inspector General report is that for the first time all these accusations are coming from someone inside the TVA.
Inspector General Moore is, according to his office’s website, “charged with promoting economy and efficiency while preventing and detecting fraud, waste, and abuse affecting TVA.” So why did it take so long for Moore to come out with a report that seems to point out problems that have been evident for a long time? For one, the Inspector General’s report was supposed to be an “independent peer review” of the first report the TVA commissioned on the causes of the spill, from AECOM, and that didn’t come out until about a month ago. Second, the Inspector General’s website says it had been pushing the TVA board for greater transparency and accountability “for some time.” But I have to wonder if the scathing report issued last week by the TVA-hired consulting firm, McKenna, Aldridge & Long, didn’t provide a strong impetus for the TVA to show that it is more on top of its game, reform-wise.
As with last week, the TVA board offered a “tough medicine” line. Board chairman Mike Duncan:
“As TVA begins the arduous process of moving forward to eliminate deficiencies in systems, standards, controls and corporate culture that were identified in McKenna’s and the Inspector General’s reports, the Inspector General will have a key role to play in being an independent voice to ensure that TVA is getting it right, and we welcome his thoughts and insights.”
One really big issue the board didn’t comment on (at least in its latest press release) was Moore’s recommendation that the TVA be monitored by regular Congressional oversight hearings until it had cleaned up its act, literally and figuratively. That would be a major change, since the TVA has had basically no direct accountability to the federal government since it was created in 1933.
