A leading private security company has again been caught cheating on tests designed to gauge the readiness its guards protecting the country’s top processing and storage site for nuclear weapons-grade uranium.

Wackenhut Services Inc. (WSI-OR), which since 2011 has been part of G4S,  handles protection for the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oakridge, Tennessee, where security was proven lax in July after an 82-year-old nun, Sister Megan Rice, and two others broke in. The Department of Energy, which oversees all nuclear weapons facilities, sent its inspector general (IG) to examine security matters at Y-12 and found Wackenhut had cheated on security performance tests.

The IG reported that company supervisors had distributed copies of test questions and answers to guards before the exam. WSI-OR’s actions were described as “inexplicable and inexcusable” in the IG’s report.

This is not the first time the contractor was caught cheating. Eight years ago it was revealed that Y-12 guards knew when mock assaults were going to take place to test their readiness and response. As a result, the guards responded in impressive fashion to the fake attacks.

-Noel Brinkerhoff

To Learn More:

Energy IG Finds Security Contractor Cheated (by Peter Stockton and Lydia Dennett, Project on Government Oversight)

Cheating on Energy Department Guard Force Tests Was Widespread (by R. Jeffrey Smith, Center for Public Integrity)

Review of the Compromise of Security Test Materials at the Y-12 National Security Complex (U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Inspector General, Office of Audits & Inspections) (pdf)

The 82-Year-Old Nun Who Breached U.S. High-Security Nuclear Complex (by Matt Bewig, AllGov)