Letter to B W Wachholz, Subject: Cost Overruns on FY '80 Budget for the Marshall Islands Program

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I spoke t o you early in July about the cost overruns on our 'Fy '80 budget for the Marshall Islands Program and told you I would review carefully the justification f.or each irem before I sent you a letter. I have taken that action, and I now forward t o you a request totalling $ 46,000, which is a hard and well defended figure. You will recall that in NovenSer of lasty2z r along meniorandum from Hugh Pratt provided an analysis of the t kn existing budget of $583,000 and described $297,000 of add it tonal costs which then appeared to be necessary. On Novembzr 14th you and I met with Bil i Burr, Hal Hollister,Joe Blair, Vic Bond, and HuZh'Pratt in the Forrest al Building to discuss that budget. The final outcome, as you may remezber, was a list of priorities of add-ons written on the board by Hal Hollister. The order of that priority list and sums involvcd were the following : Li kia p survey for $134,000, upgrading af the ned ical records $21,000, educational program $57,000, 25 year report $15,000. These four items,totalling $227,000, were gsi\V.cn the highest priority.The remaining items were: for unanticipated administrative costs, $9,000 for travel expenses t o be paid by BNL that were previously paid through PASO, $5,000 of additional travel through PASO, and $4,000 for micro fi schinz records. $29,000 for a third survey, $18,000 AS you know, a number of these activities were never carried out, SO the present requirement for $ 46,000represents only tho sc items which could not be covered, even i f some additional fun2s were made available through the can cell at i or : of several anticipated activities. represent existing commitments which cannot be covered by thc budget remaining for this fiscal year : 1) Tahcrshaw Contract : BNI. at the request of DOE. made for all incurred expenses. this effort amount t o Sl5,OOO. The following items It was und cr stood that reimbrirsenlent wou3d be To date invoices and indirect costs for These invoices cannot be pajcl until additional

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funds are received. 2) Preparation of the 25 year report was tobe performed by a consultant. Although the best estimate for this item in November was $15,009, it has turned out that Dr. Donald Pag lia ' s assistance has been extremely valuable, and the report, which is currently being prepared will cost $22,000 i n FY '80. This will cover consultation fees paid to Dr s. Conard and Pag lia. 3) Payment of travel costs of resident personnel.Atthe November meeting it was pointed out that BNL personnel were traveling under different travel policies, and itwas agreed that it would be appropriate for BNL to support intra - island travel expenses for BNL personnel,although these previously had been reimbursed by PASO. In fact,the BNL budget has not been increased to cover these expenses, and the cost of intra - island travel paid for by Brookhaven over two fiscal years is $9,000, including indirect costs. The expenses ofthe very large survey that was recently completed, and the expenses of the sui-vey that ended last October and were therefore charged to theN 'SO bcd get ' have not left any funds available for us t o pay Tabershaw or the additional expenses that were not foreseen at the time of the original budget submission. The total of $46,000 is much less than we were considering last November, but we vi11 need that much in addition to our financial plan,in order to closeout AT 'SO witha balanced budget. Very sincerely yours,