Todd Jacobson
NS&D Monitor
11/14/2014
The Department of Energy is heading back to the drawing board after terminating an award for an Office of Health, Safety and Security technical and security support services contract for the second time. With its latest award under protest by a team led by Project Enhancement Corp., DOE this week told the Government Accountability Office that it was taking corrective actions on the procurement, cancelling an award to Link Technologies, conducting market research and re-evaluating its acquisition strategy. Because of the corrective actions, DOE Deputy Assistant General Counsel Laura Hoffman asked GAO in a Nov. 12 letter to dismiss PEC’s protest of the contract.
A team led by PEC was initially awarded the contract under the National Nuclear Security Administration’s technical services blanket purchase agreement earlier this year, but a team led by Link Technologies challenged whether PEC met the small business size standard used in the procurement. The Small Business Administration upheld the size standard challenge, disqualifying PEC for using an exception to the professional engineering services schedule (NAICS code 541330) for military and aerospace work, and Link was quickly awarded the contract in early October.
PEC Pushed for Recompete
PEC argued in its initial protest that SBA’s decision raised a number of ambiguities about the procurement and “fundamentally changed” the competition, and it said if its proposal was disqualified due to the size standard challenge, the contract should have been recompeted because there was only one other bid—from Link. As recently as last week, DOE had sought to dismiss PEC’s protest, but the GAO said the protest would move forward, “finding that the protester is an interested party; the protest is timely filed within 10 days of protester’s receipt of the OHA decision; that the legal and factual bases are sufficient for our review; and that, if we sustain some or all of the protest, we are able to grant at least some of the requested relief.”
PEC, which is a member of the MELE team for NNSA’s technical services BPA, teamed with Protection Strategies Incorporated, MELE, ICF Incorporated, and Nuclear Safety Associates. “All we really want is a fair shot,” PEC President Rick Martinez said when it filed the protest. “We won it fair and square the first time and we want an opportunity to have a fair shot to win it again.”
In a statement to NS&D Monitor, Link Technologies Principal Ali TabaTabai said the company “continues to have faith in the integrity and objectivity of the process. We are pleased that the SBA and OHA process validated Link’s assertions regarding PEC’s ineligibility for the small business set-aside award. We are confident that DOE is taking the needed corrective actions to ensure there is fairness, integrity, and transparency in its planned acquisition strategy and selection process to make the new award to the most qualified firm, whoever that may be.”
Size Standard at Issue
Link’s initial size standard challenge centered on an exception under the North American Industry Classification System size standard utilized by the PEC team. The three NAICS codes used for the procurement—professional engineering services (PES), administrative management and general management consulting services (MOBIS), and environmental consulting services (ENV)—each have a $14 million size standard, which would have initially precluded PEC from bidding. But PEC used a $35.5 million exception for military and aerospace equipment and military weapons under the PES schedule. PEC qualified for the contract under the exception and was selected for the award on May 1, but the SBA found that the exception did not apply to the procurement, disqualifying PEC’s bid. Because of confusion with the size standard, it also established a new NAICS code (MOBIS) and size standard ($14 million) for the procurement.
