The University of California has paid a settlement of almost $1 million to a whistle-blower who was fired after documenting mismanagement, security breaches and fraud at the troubled Los Alamos National Laboratory.

But Glenn Walp, the facility's former head of the Office of Security Inquiries, said yesterday that problems at the New Mexico site would not be eradicated until a new contractor takes over management of the nuclear weapons lab.

The university has been in charge since the national lab's creation 60 years ago. Earlier this year, Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham announced that the government will require competitive bids for the contract to manage the lab when the current pact expires in 2005.

Walp and a second whistle-blower, Steven Doran, were hired to examine the handling of government property, but were fired last November after reporting the misuse of credit cards, security lapses and disappearance of valuable computer equipment. The case sparked inquiries by congressional committees and the Department of Energy.

Two months later, the University of California rehired them to advise it on reforming the facility. Walp is resigning under the settlement.

Doran is now director of public safety and systems security, the university's senior law enforcement officer. He settled with the institution for an undisclosed sum earlier this year.

Interim reports by the Energy Department's inspector general have found that the Los Alamos facility was vulnerable to fraud and abuse because of weaknesses in its system of checks and balances, and that controls over computers were inadequate and did not meet security requirements.

The latter subject is particularly sensitive, because Los Alamos management was heavily criticized for security failures in 2000 surrounding the case of scientist Wen Ho Lee, who was originally charged with espionage but who eventually pleaded guilty to mishandling classified materials.

The university said it has acted aggressively to transform the facility's managerial environment since January, bringing in outside advisers and implementing 18 major personnel changes, including the resignation of the director and firing of the principal deputy director.

"There has been a sea change in leadership," said Scott Sudduth, the university's director of federal relations. "If you ask anyone at the lab, you will see there is a real sense of a new day. We think it's much more efficiently run than it was 10 months ago and that employees are proud of that."

Sudduth said that many of the most serious concerns about fraudulent purchases and the misuse of equipment had proved unfounded.

But as Walp celebrated his settlement yesterday -- a $900,000 outright payment and $30,000 in back pay -- he said the changes did not go far enough.

"The new director and the University of California are trying to correct the problems," Walp allowed. "[But] what I encountered -- mismanagement and corruption -- is so ingrained within the laboratory philosophy that the only thing that will really correct it will be a new contractor."

Walp contended that problems were ongoing at the Los Alamos lab because of the "arrogance" of staff who had worked there for many years and were unwilling to change what he described as an antiquated approach to management.