Relying on competition, rather than a sole-source award, to choose the latest management contractor for the Energy Department’s Los Alamos National Laboratory could save about $75 million over the life of the potentially $20-billion, 10-year deal, according to the Government Accountability Office.
Some of the potential savings come from the National Nuclear Security Administration’s (NNSA) decision to decrease the fees available to the current lab manager, the nonprofit Triad National Security, relative to the fees available to its predecessor, the for-profit Los Alamos National Security, the GAO said in a report last week.
Congress’ investigative arm spent about eight months researching and writing the Jan. 30 report, “National Nuclear Security Administration Contracting: Review of the NNSA Report on the Los Alamos National Laboratory Contract Competition.”
The National Defense Authorization Act of 2013 requires both that the NNSA report the results of any management and operation competition to Congress, and that the Government Accountability Office review that report.
The NNSA briefed Congress in April 2019 regarding its June 2018 award of the lab management and operations contract to Triad — a partnership led by the University of California, the Battelle Memorial Institute, and Texas A&M University, with industry subcontractors Fluor and Huntington Ingalls.
The five-year base period on Triad’s contract is worth roughly $10 billion. The total potential fee take for the pact’s first full year is about $40 million, according to the NNSA’s 2019 performance evaluation and measurement plan for the contract. The previous contractor, Los Alamos National Security, was eligible for annual fees that ranged between $50 million and $70 million from 2006 through 2018.
