LEMPKE TO REMAIN SOURCE SELECTION AUTHORITY FOR Y-12/PANTEX PROCUREMENT

Michael Lempke, the National Nuclear Security Administration’s associate principal deputy administrator, will remain the Source Selection Authority for the agency’s combined Y-12/Pantex management procurement as it reopens the highly coveted contract competition, NNSA spokesman Josh McConaha confirmed to NW&M Monitor. Several key decisions by Lempke were challenged by teams protesting the lucrative Y-12/Pantex contract, but while the Government Accountability Office upheld protests related to the agency’s evaluation of cost savings for the contract and recommended that it seek more information from bidders, it backed Lempke’s ability to adjust several of the Source Evaluation Board’s scores for Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security. Those adjustments, which the GAO said were made due to Lempke’s Naval Reactors experience with Bechtel’s consolidation of the Bettis and Knolls atomic power laboratories, helped vault CNS past its two other competitors. Current acting NNSA Administrator Neile Miller served as the SSA for the procurement for most of the lengthy procurement, but Lempke was made the SSA Dec. 12, and eight days later he completed his analysis of the SEB’s work and selected CNS as the winner of the contract competition. The NNSA has said it will ask bidders for more information related to proposed cost savings for the contract, but has not provided a new timeline for the procurement.