The Government Accountability Office (GAO) is expected by May 1 to rule on formal protests of two multibillion-dollar Energy Department contracts for the Hanford Site in Washington state, a source said Tuesday.
To date, the COVID-19 pandemic has not forced schedule slippage in adjudication of protests to federal contract awards, and the GAO anticipates deciding on the Hanford cases within its standard 100-day timeline, the source said via email.
In December, DOE’s Office of Environmental Management issued a potential 10-year, $4-billion site services contract to a Leidos-led venture. A few days later, it awarded a Hanford Central Plateau cleanup contract for up to 10 years and $10 billion to a team led by AECOM’s Management Services business, which subsequently split off into the independent company Amentum.
In January, a team led by Huntington Ingalls Industries contested the landlord services contract, while a venture led by Bechtel National filed its protest over the Central Plateau remediation award.
The justifications for the protests have not been made public.
Although supplements to the original protests were filed to the original actions, the GAO still intends to act upon the landlord site services protest by April 22, and the Central Plateau case by April 30. The decisions might not be publicly available by those dates, as often certain confidential data must be withheld before a public decision can be made available the source said. But a public version is usually available on the GAO website within two weeks.
