GAO says further improvements to Nuclear Regulatory Commission billing process needed

A recent government accountability office (GAO) report found that while the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has made improvements to its billing processes, the agency should take additional steps to improve it.

Previous reviews by the Office of the Inspector General for the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) and internal NRC reviews identified several issues with the agency’s billing process.

The GAO report examines the actions NRC is taking to address these problems. It also considered challenges identified by selected licensees with the billing process and the extent to which NRC is addressing them.

GAO made five recommendations including that NRC should provide licensees with information on how to request additional billing information and develop a project management plan for transitioning to electronic billing.

NRC has undertaken an electronic billing initiative but has not yet developed planning documents, GAO said, although the planning phase is past its original deadline of October 2017.

GAO recommended that, in developing the project management plan for this initiative, that NRC follow project management standards and include steps for involving licensees and assessing results.