March 17, 2014

DOE ISSUES Q&As FOR NEW LEGACY MGMT. SUPPORT CONTRACT

By ExchangeMonitor

While a number of companies interested in bidding on the new support services contract for the Department of Energy’s Office of Legacy Management had sought additional time to prepare bids—a request granted by DOE—at least one company had been happy with the original timeline, according to a set of questions-and-answers on the LM support services procurement released yesterday. In one question, Restoration Services Inc. had urged DOE to stick to its original deadline for submitting bids, which called for proposals to be submitted roughly a month after the Request for Proposals was issued, rather than provide an extension. “It is our belief that an extension would penalize those non-incumbent teams that spent considerable time and effort preparing for the release of the RFP,” the RSI team wrote. DOE, though, ultimately chose to push the bid due date back to Jan. 25, from the original date of Dec. 23, 2011.

DOE also rejected in the Q&As a call from one potential bidders to add financial penalties to the new LM support services contract for the early departure of key personnel. “We recommend that DOE require commitment of personnel through the base period of the contract (two years). In light of recent DOE experience where these types of requirements had to be added retroactively to contracts because of Offerors’ in ability or unwillingness to deliver key personnel, we believe that it is in DOE’s best interest to ensure this commitment in the proposal and to provide penalties if commitments are not met,” one potential bidder wrote. In response, DOE said, “There will be no financial penalties for the removal of key personnel; however, a contractor’s unwillingness or inability to deliver qualified key personnel could negatively impact performance of the contract and could result in negative performance ratings, loss of award fee and/or termination of the contract.”

In response to several questions, DOE clarified that it is requiring two key personnel for the contract—Program Manager and Manager. “Offerors may propose other key personnel positions within the Program Manager and Manager labor categories that an Offeror considers critical. It is estimated that the number of manager, including any key personnel, is 12,” DOE said.

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