To the old adage about nothing being certain in life but death and taxes, perhaps it's now time to add "bungling by Department of Energy bureaucrats."

Ongoing problems with the DOE's Yucca Mountain project have been well-documented for years. And now a government audit has added another log to the raging fire.

The audit found that the DOE paid millions in incentive bonuses to Yucca management contractor Bechtel SAIC for work that was either late or unacceptable. From February 2001 through September 2004, the DOE paid $43.4 million in incentives. The audit challenged $3.99 million of that as being awarded "even though Bechtel delivered poor quality work and missed deadlines." Among the dubious payments cited was $2 million for work Bechtel did on a license application for the nuclear repository.

The waste could even be more significant the audit found, concluding that "total costs of inappropriate incentive fees cannot be determined."

Bechtel officials, of course, may have a different perspective. They said they "take the report seriously and will review it carefully." Good. But the fact that DOE officials accepted the findings lends credence to criticism that the agency is rife with mismanagement.

For instance, the audit found DOE managers failed to identify acceptable performance levels or even how to measure the quality of the contractor's work. There were also no procedures to adjust the awards for late or poor work.

Who needs standards, after all, when millions of taxpayer dollars and the safety of a potential nuclear waste dumping ground are at stake?

Paul Golan, the principal deputy director of the Yucca Mountain report, didn't dispute the audit's conclusions. "I will use this report to develop a comprehensive corrective action plan that will provide clearer and more objective standards," he said in a letter responding to the audit.

Mr. Golan ought to do much more than that.

First, some of those involved in the problems documented should be terminated. The failure of DOE managers to implement even basic safeguards would never be tolerated in a private-sector project of this magnitude.

Second, the DOE should demand that Bechtel reimburse taxpayers for any inappropriate financial awards the company received.

Third, the DOE should reconsider the entire incentive program, given that it doesn't seem to have had any affect on the quality or timeliness of the work produced. Yucca Mountain is years behind schedule, for goodness sake.

On the bright side, however, the constant DOE bumbling offers more and more hope to Nevadans that this dubious project will never ever come to fruition.