The U.S. Energy Department has now formally announced plans to keep the three current providers of technical support services for the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office (PPPO) on the job through June 2020.
The agency filed a formal notice Thursday announcing plans to keep Albuquerque, N.M.-based Strategic Management Solutions Inc. (SMSI) on the job for up to six additional months as engineering and operations technical services provider for PPPO. That covers PPPO headquarters in Lexington, Ky., as well as depleted uranium hexafluoride (DUF6) conversion operations in Pike County, Ohio, and Paducah, Ky.
Likewise, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management filed a similar notice of intent for a sole source extension the same day for Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based RSI EnTech, which provides technical support for cleanup at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio.
Both contracts are currently scheduled to expire on Dec. 31. If they receive full six-month extensions, SMSI and RSI EnTech would both receive $5 million to $7 million, according to the DOE notices.
The Energy Department last week announced a six-month contract extension for similar work provided by Oak Ridge, Tenn.-based Pro2Serve at the Paducah Site. Its six-month extension could be worth up to $3.5 million.
The Energy Department wants to eventually replace the three piecemeal contracts with a single award covering technical services across the PPPO complex. However, Strategic Management Solutions has twice protested a five-year, $137 million contract awarded to a Pro2Serve unit. The Energy Department pulled the first award in August 2018 after the initial protest, then issued the contract again in August, only to have SMSI file another protest the following month.
Strategic Management Solutions on Oct. 7 filed a supplemental bid protest with the Government Accountability Office, evidently based on information it learned since filing the September protest. A GAO ruling is expected by mid-January.
