Summary: Since its inception in 1988, the Environment, Safety, and Health Office's Site Representative Program has not provided the vigorous independent oversight originally envisioned. Staffing constraints have limited the program's coverage of Department of Energy (DOE) sites, and the office has lacked a systemic approach for using the site residents' observations to evaluate safety and health performance. In addition, DOE has not required line management to respond to the site residents' findings. As a result, line management has failed to adequately address some major safety and health issues cited by site residents, posing unnecessary risks to workers. In restructuring the program in 1992, the Environment, Safety, and Health Office made a number of improvements, but basic problems persist, such as staffing constraints. In addition, new problems further limit this oversight capability--the program's coverage of occupational health has ceased; the program has not set minimum training requirements for site representatives; and the site representatives are not spending enough time touring work areas to identify safety problems. Finally, the office's ability to resolve problems once they are identified is limited because of the absence of requirements spelling out how line managers should respond to findings.
