Following a protest by a rival bidder with the Government Accountability Office, the Department of Energy is taking a second look at the $1-billion security contract it awarded last month to a joint venture led by Securitas CIS for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
A notice posted on the Government Accountability Office (GAO) website shows that a bid protest Feb. 22 by a rival bidder, SOC, a Day & Zimmermann security company, was dismissed March 12. In addition, a one-page GAO document obtained by Weapons Complex Monitor, said DOE has agreed to take “corrective action” by investigating certain allegations raised in the SOC protest.
Once this process is complete, DOE “will either reaffirm the existing award or make a new award determination,” according to the one-page decision document, also dated March 12. The GAO document said DOE filed a “Notice of Corrective Action and Request for Dismissal” with the congressional watchdog office on March 8. The protester, SOC, did not object to the corrective action, according to the GAO decision signed by General Counsel Thomas Armstrong.
Among other things, the SOC protest made allegations of an organizational conflict of interest for a subcontractor for the Feb. 12 winner of the Savannah River Site Paramilitary Security Services contract, the SRS Critical Infrastructure Security (SCIS) team led by Virginia-based Securitas CIS. The SOC protest also raised questions about DOE’s “price realism” analysis, according to the letter.
The DOE decision to take corrective action “renders the protest academic” and GAO does not consider academic protests, according to the letter.
A DOE spokesperson in South Carolina declined comment. Securitas, the leader of the winning joint venture, did not immediately return an email seeking comment.
A Centerra Group company holds the current security business at the Savannah River Site under a roughly $1 billion contract that started in October 2009 and is currently slated to end in June.
