Summary: The Department of Energy (DOE) spent about $379 million in fiscal year 1997--the most recent year for which cost data are available--on training (about $57 million for federal employees and about $322 million for contractor employees). This total is about $175 million less than the amount DOE spent on training in fiscal year 1995. This report discusses (1) DOE's current process for setting its training budget, (2) identifies ways to reduce the costs of DOE's training program, and (3) evaluates DOE's draft plan for training its employees in the future. GAO found that DOE has not completed any of the critical steps identified in the Office of Personnel Management's and its own guidance that lead to developing a sound and defensible training budget. Also, DOE could reduce its training costs by eliminating certain nonmandatory training and reducing duplicative and nonstandard training across the Department. Regarding DOE's draft training plan, GAO found that the draft training plan has several shortcomings that may preclude it from improving departmental training through fiscal year 2001, as intended.
