With retirements and resignations depleting key worker ranks, a procurement manager with the Department of Energy’s nuclear cleanup branch said this week the feds should tap parent companies of prime contractors.
“Attrition and retention challenges have recently increased the need for the Office of Environmental Management (EM) prime contractors to access corporate support resources to support contract performance, particularly support from labor categories in short supply across the United States,” Angela Watmore said in a memo dated Monday.
The memo was addressed to 15 members of EM leadership at the Washington, D.C., headquarters, the Cincinnati-based Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center and field offices across the weapons complex.
Watmore, who heads EM’s acquisition and project management, said it is becoming necessary to use “corporate reach back” provisions of DOE contracts allowing the feds to draw upon the parent companies. If a contractor is a joint venture, then the parent companies of all partners should be prepared to help fill personnel gaps.
“EM has the right to expect that the contractor will deliver the benefits of that promised support during contract performance,” Watmore said in the memo viewed by Exchange Monitor. “I expect the contracting officers who administer EM contracts will support the ability of EM to obtain effective corporate reach back under the parent organization support requirement.”
A senior executive for a DOE contractor praised Watmore’s memo, and said the document should reduce the bureaucratic gyrations needed to have corporations like Amentum, BWXT, Bechtel, Fluor, Jacobs and Leidos help fill talent gaps. For example, if a DOE site runs short of experienced fire suppression bosses, big companies with affiliates in the weapons complex could help fill the gap, the source said.
Leaning upon corporate parents can provide an alternative to additional subcontracting in some instances, according to the memo. A DOE spokesperson said Thursday the agency has taken this step a number of times previously and it should not reduce subcontractor solicitations.
It is a stopgap move, the contractor executive said, adding the long-term fix is restocking the weapons cleanup complex with new talent.
While calling it a wise move for the government to make, a second contractor manager doubts it will really solve many EM problems.
“The market is a stronger influence” on contractor’s than Watmore’s memo, the second industry source said by phone Thursday. “Most people don’t have a bench of people” who are both skilled and not already tied up with other projects. Filling vacancies is tough these days, especially in remote locations. Many contractors end up trying to hire away people from other companies at higher pay — which eats away at already slim profit margins, the source said. “The type of people everyone wants are really expensive.”
The acting head of EM, senior adviser William (Ike) White, has said about half of the federal staff at the nuclear cleanup branch could retire within five years. The contractors for DOE have also made recruiting new blood a priority in recent times.
