Final RFP Could Slip Into New Year
Kenneth Fletcher
WC Monitor
11/21/2014
KNOXVILLE, Tenn.—As the Department of Energy continues to consider concerns raised by industry about the draft Request for Proposals for the new Idaho Cleanup Project Core contract, release of a final RFP could be pushed into the new year, DOE Office of Environmental Management officials said here this week. The comments come after last month senior executives from most major DOE contractors indicated they likely would not bid on the contract if there were not significant changes to the draft. “There have been a lot of concerns expressed about that draft information. Those have come through loud and clear,” acting Assistant Energy Secretary for Environmental Management Mark Whitney said at the ETEBA Business Opportunities Conference. “We are working in the Department to consider those before we come out with any additional information.”
The ICP Core contract is intended to largely replace the two current cleanup contracts at the Idaho site that are set to end Sept. 30, 2015—CH2M-WG Idaho’s contract to perform most cleanup work at the site and Idaho Treatment Group’s contract to operate the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project. Work to be performed under the contract, which is set to run for five years, will include EM facility infrastructure, environmental remediation, waste management and spent nuclear fuel surveillance. However, last month at the Weapons Complex Monitor Decisionmakers’ Forum, industry executives expressed concern with language in the draft RFP for the new contract that would make the contractor liable for costs above the target cost combined with uncertainties in the work scope to be performed.
December Release ‘Looking More Unlikely’
DOE had hoped to release the final RFP in December, but it may miss that target as it works through feedback on both the controversial provisions and other issues such as scope definition and requests for additional documentation, David Hess of EM’s Consolidated Business Center told WC Monitor on the sidelines of the conference. “There are a couple of big issues obviously, the cost cap, the fee clawback, that have caused some concern that we are taking a close look at,” Hess said. “I don’t know if that will change or not, but that is being discussed at the highest levels in the Department. Our schedule would be to have that final RFP out in December, but that’s looking more unlikely.”
EM is considering “the full range of feedback,” EM Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition and Project Management Jack Surash told WC Monitor on the sidelines of the conference. “There will be some form of updating that we’ll be doing as soon as we can. That will be an update of the draft RFP,” he said. “We are going to want to move as quickly as we can to a final RFP. That could still be December that we get a final RFP out. It could slip a little bit, but we are pushing hard to resolve any of the loose ends.”
