Swift & Staley could stay on as Infrastructure Support Services provider at the Department of Energy’s Paducah Site in Kentucky through March 2023 while the company fights a court ruling that it should not have received a small-business set-aside follow-on contract for the work.
The existing landlord would remain in place at Paducah through March 31, 2023, unless the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit issues its decision on Swift & Staley’s appeal before then, according to a Monday filing in the Court of Federal Claims by DOE and Akima Intra-Data.
Akima, a losing bidder for the follow-on, protested DOE’s award to the small business administration, leading to the ongoing court fight that now has escalated to the appeals circuit.
Monday’s filing includes a draft “Notice of Intent” by DOE for a non-competitive extension of Swift & Staley’s existing contract, dating back to October 2015, to March 2023. It was previously scheduled to run out in July. The extension would be long enough for critical projects to advance at Paducah, according to the filing.
Thanks to various extensions enacted over the past two years of litigation, Swift & Staley’s 2015 contract is now valued at $298 million.
The federal agency and Akima, defendants in the incumbents’ litigation, asked Federal Claims Court Judge Thompson Dietz to set March 31, 2023, “as the maximum end date for the injunction.” The injunction issued in April put on hold enforcement of an earlier ruling that Swift & Staley is too big to qualify for the potential five-year, $160 million contract awarded in December 2020.
The Federal Claims Court has already said Swift & Staley does not have a strong likelihood of prevailing on appeal, and concluding its tenure at Paducah by next March would minimize the likelihood of any “irreparable harm” to Swift & Staley, according to the government filing.
