A Centerra Group subsidiary contracted to protect the Energy Department’s Savannah River Site in South Carolina took home almost $3 million of an available award fee of $3.16 million, roughly 95 percent, for the six-month period from October 2017 through March 2018.
The Energy Department praised Centerra-Savannah River Site for its work providing physical protection at the 310‐square‐mile federal facility. During the first half of fiscal 2018, the company was credited for its actions in the aftermath of a 55-day strike by the contractor’s unionized guards, which ended early in this reporting period, as well as handling certain potential emergency situations.
It was another strong scorecard for Centerra-SRS. In December, the security provider was awarded 96 percent of the possible $6.1 million fee for fiscal 2017.
The contractor employs about 690 people at the site involved in a wide spectrum of security work, including maintaining entry checkpoints, conducting river patrols, helping criminal investigations, property protection, and alarm monitoring. It includes protection for operations overseen by DOE’s Office of Environmental Management, as well as facilities controlled by the department’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration.
After going on strike in August 2017, members of the union representing the SRS security force, United Professional Pro-Force of Savannah River, fully returned to work in October after ratifying a new contract through October 2022.
The contractor had a “well-orchestrated return-to-duty recovery plan that consisted of the coordination of medical evaluations for clearance of fitness-for-duty training, conduct of physical fitness tests, weapons qualifications, and other training requirements for over 200 striking [protective forces] members,” according to the scorecard.
During the review period, Centerra-SRS completed tactical response force training for 27 new security police officers needed to make up for attrition and “emerging SRS security missions,” DOE said. The company also finished recruiting and screening 19 basic security police officer students who began training in April of this year.
Centerra-SRS also found a means to conduct certain “force-on-force” security exercises in areas of the complex where firing blanks would not be allowed due to nuclear facility safety basis restrictions. No further details were provided regarding those exercises.
The Energy Department also complimented the security contractor for instituting cost controls while federal funding levels for the current fiscal 2018 were largely frozen until the omnibus appropriations bill was signed into law in March. The company delayed some purchases and also cross-trained certain dog handlers to work with both bomb-sniffing and narcotic detection canines.
During February, Centerra security personnel helped apprehend an individual who was speeding on a public road within the facility. After fleeing an SRS traffic stop, the person crashed the vehicle in a wooded area and was subsequently apprehended just off of DOE property. A search of the suspect’s automobile uncovered over 4 pounds of marijuana and more than $13,000 in cash.
In March, an unauthorized vehicle entered the site through one of the SRS perimeter barricades. After finally getting the automobile to pull over, security officers found they were dealing with a medical situation involving “an elderly female who was extremely disoriented,” according to the performance scorecard.
The company’s 10-year, $1 billion contract expires in September 2019. Centerra-SRS does expect to bid on a new contract once DOE issues a request for proposals, said Suzanne Piner, a spokesperson for Centerra Group’s corporate parent, Virginia-based Constellis. The RFP could be issued this summer, the department has said.
“We have a 35-year history of providing exceptional security services to our client, the Department of Energy, at the Savannah River Site,” said Centerra-SRS spokesman Rob Davies by email. “We will absolutely submit a proposal to continue that legacy in protecting National security interests at SRS safely, efficiently and cost-effectively.”
“We appreciate the acknowledgment of our team’s 24/7 efforts to meet a wide range of unique and ever-changing security challenges at SRS from both DOE and NNSA,” Piner said by email.
