Office of Inspector General report on special audit of pension plans for Department of Energy contract employees of the University of California

Abstract

On May 15, 1996, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced its decision to extend and renegotiate its contracts with the University of California for the management and operation of the Los Alamos, Lawrence Berkeley, and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories. Current contracts for the operation of these laboratories expire in 1997. The renegotiation process provides an opportunity for the Department to: (1) recover at least $620 million in excess assets from the pension plans it has funded for University of California employees who work at DOE`s laboratories; and (2) improve the Department`s ability to exercise prudent management of its interest in those pension funds. According to Department records, as of July 1, 1995, the University of California Retirement Plan had between$620 million and $2.0 billion in excess assets that were attributable to the Department of Energy (emphasis supplied). The wide variation in excess assets is a function of the assumptions used in making these calculations. These are described in Appendix 1 to this report. It was concluded as a result of the audit that, as part of the contract renegotiation process, the Department should obtain the cooperation and assistance of the University of California in recovering excess pension plan assets in a manner that does not affect the defined retirement benefits of the contract employees. This could include jointly sponsoring legislation to modify any existing legal restrictions