Incumbent contractor Navarro Research and Engineering will provide support services to the Department of Energy’s Office of Legacy Management through the first quarter of 2021 while a court fight continues over award of a new long-term agreement.
In a notice posted Wednesday on a federal procurement website, the DOE said it will extend the expiration date on Navarro’s current contract from Dec. 31, through March 31.
The procurement notice said the extension is in response to the legal protest filed with the U.S. Court of Federal Claims over the Legacy Management contract issued earlier this year to a Navarro rival, RSI EnTech. Both DOE contractors are based in Oak Ridge, Tenn.
The notice said the federal agency and Navarro would negotiate over the compensation for the additional three months of work. The current five-year small business set-aside contract held by Navarro is worth $366 million.
Navarro and another bidder for the new contract, LATA-Atkins Technical Services, lost a bid protest decision before the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in June.
In late March, DOE’s Legacy Management office awarded RSI EnTech a five-year contract worth $191 million to provide work including routine inspections, groundwater monitoring, and compliance reports for restored nuclear cleanup sites across the country.
In their unsuccessful bid protests, LATA-Atkins Technical Services and Navarro, who bid $273 million and $284 million respectively, claimed RSI proposed unrealistically low rock-bottom prices for the work.
However, the GAO ruled that it had high confidence in RSI, LATA-Atkins and Navarro, after evaluating five proposals on factors including price as well as technical capabilities and management approach.
Navarro filed its appeal with the federal claims court on June 25. RSI intervened in the case immediately thereafter. The Navarro complaint and most other documents filed in the case save for scheduling orders, were filed under seal, according to an online court website. The latest filing under seal was Sept. 25. It was unclear when a decision might be expected in the case.
Navarro did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and most firms do not comment on matters in litigation.
