Y-12/PANTEX DECISION COMING IN ‘EARLY NOVEMBER’

There could be a decision on the National Nuclear Security Administration’s Y-12/Pantex procurement in “early November,” NNSA spokesman Josh McConaha said in a statement yesterday confirming that the agency’s technical experts have completed their evaluation of revised bids. The Source Selection Authority on the procurement, who the agency has not disclosed, will make a decision on the competition, the agency told bidders Friday. In an effort to prevent a third protest of its decision, the NNSA said it is offering a “two-part open book debriefing process” to bidders that would provide more info about the agency’s selection process, but it said it would only conduct the briefings if all three bidders agreed. Under the two-part open book process, representatives from each bidder would receive a debriefing on the evaluation of its proposal and then would be provided an electronic copy of the complete set of source selection documentation. “The two-part open book process is intended to protect privileged, proprietary and confidential information while allowing each offeror to fully understand the basis of the source selection decision, and if at all possible, resolve any concerns regarding the award without resort to a bid protest,” McConaha said.

The $22.8 billion procurement has been long delayed by two separate protests. The NNSA initially awarded the contract to Bechtel-led Consolidated Nuclear Security, but teams led by Babcock & Wilcox and Jacobs/Fluor successfully challenged the NNSA’s decision, leading the agency in June to seek more information from bidders about their cost savings proposals. The B&W team then protested the agency’s follow-on procurement process, though the Government Accountability Office turned away the company’s challenges Sept. 25, calling them premature. It is not clear if the NNSA gave bidders a deadline by which to make a decision on the debriefings. While it said it will only move forward with the plan if there is unanimity among bidders, it said it will not disclose the decisions of each bidder. “The individual offerors’ decisions whether or not to agree will not be communicated to any decisionmaker or to the other offerors, instead we will simply convey whether there is or is not unanimous agreement,” the NNSA said. Bechtel and B&W declined to comment on the debriefing process. Jacobs/Fluor did not respond to a request for comment.