Although a federal appeals court ruled Swift & Staley should not have been issued a new five-year Department of Energy contract to continue as landlord of the Paducah Site in Kentucky for five more years, it appears the contractor will stay in place there at least through July 2024.
The DOE in a notice of intent dated Thursday said it plans to issue Paducah-based incumbent Swift & Staley a new 16-month extension, worth up to $60 million, to continue providing infrastructure site services at the former gaseous diffusion plant from April 1 through July 31, 2024.
“DOE intends to non-competitively extend the period of performance under the [Swift & Staley] contract up to sixteen (16) months to allow for completion of the competitive procurement process,” according to the notice.
The extension Swift & Staley has received during its legal challenges, plus this proposed one, would exceed the 3-year base period it would have received in the initial December 2020 contract award.
The ruling by the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in December upheld decisions by a lower court and the Small Business Administration that Swift & Staley violated the agency’s size standards at the time the Paducah set-aside contract was awarded in December 2020. DOE remained enjoined from taking further action until Thursday Feb. 2, 2023.
The legal protest of the December 2020 award to Swift & Staley was filed with the Small Business Administration by Herndon, Va.,-based Akima, a rival bidder. “Akima declines comment at this time,” an attorney who represented Akima said by email Thursday. Exchange Monitor had asked the lawyer if Akima planned any additional legal filing.
While the filing is not a request for proposals, DOE said it would accept comments for 15 days, which translates to about Feb. 17, for contractors who consider their businesses capable of providing the services, ranging from overseeing everything from security to grounds maintenance to pest control at the former uranium enrichment site.
