Swift & Staley’s share of the Portsmouth Site’s infrastructure services contractor helped make the company ineligible for a small-business set-aside contract at Department of Energy’s Paducah Site, according to a ruling made public this week by the Small Business Administration.
Swift & Staley’s annual receipts alone did not push it past a $41.5 million size standard for the five-year, $160-million Paducah Infrastructure Support Services contract in Kentucky that DOE awarded the company in December — but factor in the company’s share of the Portsmouth Mission Alliance joint venture with North Wind Solutions in Ohio and Swift & Staley was over the line, protester Akima Intra-Data argued to the Small Business Administration (SBA).
The SBA agreed with the protestor’s reasoning, according to a redacted version of an April 20 decision by the agency’s Office of Hearings and Appeals.
Swift & Staley said Portsmouth Mission Alliance (PMA) is a “populated” joint venture, in which employees working directly for the venture do all the work. However, SBA changed its rules in 2016 saying only “unpopulated” joint ventures should be eligible for small-business awards, according to the decision.
Swift & Staley is the incumbent infrastructure support contractor at Paducah and, for now, remains on the job at the shuttered gaseous diffusion plant under an extension DOE granted earlier this year. The extension potentially stretches the deal to March 31, 2022. It was set to expire April 1.
Swift & Staley also is not giving up on the follow-on work. The company has appealed the Small Business Administration’s decision to the U.S. Court of Federal Claims, where most of the documents are being filed under seal.
The Portsmouth Mission Alliance team has a five-plus-year contract valued at $190-million to provide support services at the Portsmouth Site in Ohio. That agreement is currently set to expire Aug. 24. The actual percentage of Swift & Staley’s ownership of Portsmouth Mission Alliance was redacted from the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals ruling.
