The Department of Energy’s recently released final Request for Task Proposals for deactivation of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant offered plenty of surprises for the teams lining up to bid on the work, including some issues that—if left unresolved—may force some companies to make tough bid/no-bid decisions. The contract, being bid under the Department of Energy’s existing set of unrestricted Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity cleanup contracts, would last for three years and bids are due Sept. 20. In a change from the draft version, the final RTP adds “recent and relevant past performance” to the evaluation criteria and in a release announcing the RTP late last week, DOE noted that the final document “aims to incentivize contractor cost control, schedule and performance achievements by paying only provisional fee to the contractor throughout the Task Order period of performance and delaying the final determination of earned fee until the end of the of the Task Order. This will allow the Department to hold the contractor accountable for meeting all of the Award Fee and Task Order requirements because some or all of the entire provisional fee would be returned to the Government if the conditions are not met.”
Bidders noted this week that while the work is being bid as a task order under the ID/IQs, the RTP sets out requirements more akin to a Request for Proposals for a large, stand-alone contract. “It’s like they’re trying to cram all this extra stuff into what was supposed to be a different kind of process for the ID/IQs,” one contractor executive told WC Monitor yesterday. Key personnel will, for the first time under the ID/IQs, be required to participate in oral presentations and will be required to make a three-year commitment. “I would guess that’s going to make some companies rethink their key personnel strategy … There’s really not a lot in that third year,” another executive said.
One key issue that is likely to be a concern for several bidding companies is a clause in the RTP directing that “allocations of parent organization expenses are unallowable for the Contractor, major/critical subcontractors, and/or teaming partners, unless authorized by the Contracting Officer.” The RTP notes that, “for on-site work, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) fee generally provides adequate compensation for parent organization (home office) expenses incurred in the general management of this Task Order. The general construct of this Task Order results in minimal parent organization investment (in terms of its own resources, such as labor, material, overhead, etc.) in the Task Order work.”
