Virginia-based Akima Intra-Data withdrew its protest of the Department of Energy’s September award of a five-year, $135-million Infrastructure Support Services contract at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio to North Wind Dynamics.
Akima dropped the protest Nov. 16, according to a notice on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) website. The company protested the award on Oct. 4.
The GAO is a congressional watchdog charged with examining how taxpayer dollars are spent. One of its jobs is to rule on disputed federal contract awards. It does not, however, act as a transparent public court. While public notices are posted when protests are filed or withdrawn, with written decisions issued at the end of 100-day GAO adjudications, almost none of the case-specific documents produced along the way are made public.
As a result, there is no public document shedding light on why Akima is abandoning the protest.
Idaho-based North Wind won the award in late September over three other rivals, DOE has said. North Wind is already essentially the incumbent provider of landlord services at the site of the former DOE gaseous diffusion plant complex in Pike County. The North Wind-led joint venture, Portsmouth Mission Alliance, has a $206-million contract scheduled to expire in February.
Meanwhile, Akima is still pursuing its legal claim that Swift & Staley exceeds the Small Business Administration size limits for the five-year, $160-million DOE set-aside services contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky, given Swift & Staley’s stake in Portsmouth Mission Alliance.
A Small Business Administration panel again recently ruled Swift & Staley exceeds the size guidelines for the Paducah award and as a result Akima is expected to file an amended complaint with the Federal Claims Court by Dec. 3, according to the scheduling order posted in late December.. Swift & Staley took the case to the claims court after the Small Business Administration’s first size determination earlier this year.
