Although Swift & Staley lost a court battle over a long-term contract, the Department of Energy said this week it plans to keep the incumbent company in place as landlord of the Paducah Site in Kentucky for up to 16 months.
In a Thursday notice published online, DOE’s Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office announced plans to extend Swift & Staley’s landlord tenure without competitive bidding. Absent DOE procuring a new contractor earlier, Swift & Staley would remain in place from Aug. 1, 2024 to Nov. 30, 2025, according to the document.
According to the notice, DOE could issue a request for proposals for a follow-on agreement as soon as May for Paducah Site services ranging from security to grounds maintenance and records management. This week’s online notice does not provide a dollar-value for the anticipated extension.
Swift & Staley has been providing site services at the former Paducah gaseous diffusion plant since October 2015 and, thanks to various extensions, the current business is valued at $396 million, based on a DOE contract chart from last November.
In December 2020, Swift & Staley won a new long-term contract for the infrastructure and support services at the Paducah Site based upon small business set-aside competition, DOE said in Thursday’s notice.
But a rival bidder, Akima, went on to successfully challenge the Swift & Staley award first before the Small Business Administration and subsequently in federal court.
Akima argued Swift & Staley should not have been considered small enough to qualify for the new $160-million contract award. The legal battle finally ended in December 2022 when a three-judge panel of U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit ruled against Swift & Staley. Its 2020 contract award was officially canceled in March 2023.
DOE has already extended Swift & Staley once since the appeals court decision was handed down.
