Mike Nartker
WC Monitor
3/13/2015
Bechtel National received a slight uptick in fee for its work at the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant in the second half of 2014, according to information the Department of Energy released late this week. Bechtel National earned 65 percent of the award fee available for the six-month period, or $4.095 million out of an available $6.3 million. For the first half of last year, Bechtel National earned 63 percent of the available fee, which represented a significant boost over the 48 percent of available fee the contractor earned for the second half of 2013—representing its lowest fee determination to date at the WTP. In a message to employees late this week, Bechtel National WTP Project Director Peggy McCullough said the latest fee determination is “an improvement from our previous five awards.”
Bechtel National latest fee determination included approximately $2.67 million in award fee tied to project management, or 70.7 percent of the available fee; and approximately $1.42 million in award fee tied to cost performance, or 56.5 percent of the available fee. The DOE Office of River Protection declined to provide additional comment on Bechtel National’s fee determination, saying more information would be made available in an award fee scorecard set to be released soon.
In a March 11 letter to Bechtel National, ORP Manager Kevin Smith wrote, “I am making this determination based on the Federal Project Director’s recommendation, BNI’s Self-Assessment, and detailed performance input from U.S. Department of Energy Headquarters and Environmental Management (EM) staff. Evaluating all of the internal and external input and my own personal observations of BNI’s performance, I utilized my independent professional judgment to make the determination on the fee awarded to BNI for this rating period.”
