Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
2/7/2014
The Department of Energy plans to make a decision within the next 60 days on whether it will combine the infrastructure support services contracts at the Portsmouth and Paducah sites into one new contract, DOE spokesman Bill Taylor said this week. The work is currently being performed under two separate contracts. At Portsmouth, Wastren-EnergX Mission Support, LLC, has a contract that expires in July 2015; while the contract for Paducah infrastructure firm Swift & Staley, LLC, ends in March 2015. “A final decision has not been made concerning the Acquisition Strategy for procuring infrastructure services at both sites. It’s anticipated the final decision will be made within the next 60 days,” Taylor said in a written response.
DOE has launched follow-on procurements for both contracts. In a sources sought notice for the Portsmouth procurement posted in December, DOE wrote: “DOE is also contemplating whether to combine this scope with the Infrastructure Services requirements at the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant.” It adds, “The potentially combined [Infrastructure Support Services] scopes of work at the Portsmouth and Paducah GDPs could result in a single solicitation to award two (2) contracts to one or more contractors.” It asked potential bidders to “Please discuss the potential benefits and drawbacks associated with a single solicitation and/or multiple solicitations and a single award and/or multiple awards contract for these types of infrastructure support services. What do you consider the more feasible and/or effective acquisition alternative and why?” Recently, though, the DOE Office of Environmental Management’s Consolidated Business Center established a public website for the procurement for only a new Paducah infrastructure services contract.
WEMS Earns 88 Percent of FY’13 Award Fee
Also this week, DOE released award fee information for both infrastructure contractors for Fiscal Year 2013. Portsmouth contractor WEMS earned 88 percent of its available FY13 award fee, or $1.32 million out of $1.5 million available, according to its award fee determination scorecard. The contractor has continued “sustained safety performance,” the scorecard states, noting that it has worked over 1 million hours without a lost work case and that DOE awarded “VPP Contractor Champion of the Year” to a WEMS union employee. Wastren Advantage President and CEO Steve Moore said in a statement, “We’re very focused on working with DOE, the D&D contractor, and the community to make the Portsmouth Project a success. We appreciate the positive comments from our client and are continuing to look at ways to better support the project.”
The scorecard for WEMS listed no significant deficiencies, and noted several significant achievements, including all 204 deliverables submitted on time. Other achievements include “the joint DOE/WEMS management weekly site walkthroughs, the lessons learned implementation program, the safety conscious response to site walking/driving conditions at the site especially during snow/ice events, responsiveness to site changes requiring staffing reallocation, the boundary fence clearing/fence line neighbor program, the general attention to site appearance, the ongoing management of HSPD-12 badging, implementation of temporary security fencing for D&D projects, the PII/OUO cyber security protection program, the improved quality of the cyber security staff, stable FTE level while reacting to changing site condition,” according to the scorecard.
Swift & Staley Earns 88 Percent of FY’13 Award Fee
Meanwhile, Swift & Staley earned 88 percent of its award fee for FY’13, earning $822,589 out of $933,699 total available, according to its award fee scorecard. That includes $140,054 in performance-based incentives fee earned for processing legacy records, closing the document center and removing security requirements. Swift & Staley Inc. Chief Operating Officer, W. G. Holsapple, Jr. said in a statement this week, “We are proud of our accomplishments last year and greatly appreciate DOE’s confidence in our ability to perform. Swift & Staley looks forward to the challenges this upcoming year will present and will continue to provide quality support to DOE to ensure mission success.”
In award fee, the contractor earned $682,534 and met “the majority of performance goals and objectives for this period,” according to the scorecard. “SST was able to complete multiple bridge repair and removal projects efficiently, within time and cost restraints, including one emergency repair. Cost controls were excellent, including power sell backs/savings of over $55K and savings of over 50% in trailer relocation expenses.” While there were no significant deficiencies, “improvements are expected in work controls and conduct of operations in fiscal year 2014.”
