Swift and Staley may yet keep a key small business support contract at the Paducah Site in Kentucky after the Court of Federal Claims last week granted motions sought by the contractor in a lawsuit.
A federal judge in Washington, D.C., on Friday issued a written opinion, not yet publicly available, in an appeal Swift & Staley brought in April seeking to overturn an earlier determination by a Small Business Administration panel that ruled the company was too large to qualify for the Department of Energy’s $160-million Paducah Infrastructure Support Services Contract.
According to a filing in the Court of Federal Claims, Judge Thompson Dietz is granting the judgment motion sought by plaintiff Swift & Staley, denying motions filed by the Justice Department on behalf of defendant United States government and denying a motion by Akima Intra-Data, a rival bidder for the Paducah contract.
The case is being remanded to the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) Office of Hearings and Appeals. The brief notice appears to suggest a public version of the judge’s Aug. 20 ruling could be released in the near future after any confidential business data has been redacted from the document, according to the notice. The judge instructed such deletions be made by this Friday.
Swift & Staley did not respond to a request for comment, a Small Business Administration spokesperson declined comment given the document is not yet publicly available and a DOE spokesperson cited the agency’s policy not to comment on active procurement matters.
The federal claims court judge heard oral arguments last month.
The areas panel for the Small Business Administration agreed in April with a finding by SBA that Swift & Staley would not meet the size limit of $41 million for the new set-aside contract once its minority share of a joint venture providing similar services at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio is taken into account. North Wind is the lead partner with Swift & Staley for the Portsmouth services contract.
Swift & Staley has been the service provider at Paducah, a role that includes maintenance of grounds, buildings and roads, plus recordkeeping, since October 2015 under a contract now worth about $256-million. Under an extension, Swift & Staley is scheduled to stay on the job at Paducah at least through Sept. 30.
