The Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management has set up a website devoted to providing information on the end states contracting model.
End states, as defined in December special notice from the DOE cleanup office, is a single-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity (IDIQ) contracting approach with the flexibility to cover both cost-reimbursement and firm-fixed-price task orders within the award. The agency will competitively award contracts through a two-step process, in which a vendor is picked and then negotiations are held for future task orders. Proponents have said this concept should better allow the Energy Department and its contractors to adjust to changing cleanup needs at a given site.
“This IDIQ contract construct provides EM the needed flexibility to task its contractors using a risk-based approach to better define discrete scopes of work for site closure or end states,” according to the website. Through this additional flexibility, and the higher potential fees it can award to contractors, DOE hopes the end states approach will accelerate cleanup and reduce its environmental liability.
The end states contracting model has been championed, before both federal contractors and the Government Accountability Office, by Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White. The method is also consistent with contract reform efforts by Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, according to EM.
The Energy Department plans to apply an end states approach to seven solicitations now in the pipeline: Hanford Site Central Plateau Cleanup in Washington state, Hanford Tank Closure, Oak Ridge Reservation Cleanup in Tennessee, Nevada Environmental Program Services, Portsmouth Decontamination and Decommissioning in Ohio, West Valley Phase 1B Cleanup in upstate New York, and the Idaho Cleanup Project.
