A year after the Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management initiated its end-state contracting model, confusion remains over exactly what that approach involves, whether leadership is still behind it, and if staff is ready to execute.
These are among the key takeaways Tuesday when DOE’s Environmental Management Advisory Board formally adopted a report on human resources needed to implement the end-state model. The report stresses the need for better communication on the goals and procedures for the contracting model.
The approach is “to pivot from process-based” 10-year contracts toward “more effective utilization of limited funding” to speed nuclear cleanup and reduce risk through more task-oriented and up-to-date work scopes that better reflect current environmental conditions, said advisory board member Carol Johnson during the Washington, D.C.-based electronic meeting. Johnson co-chaired the subcommittee that drafted the report.
End-state supporters say the higher fees provide incentives for vendors to complete remediation faster, while DOE gains additional flexibility on setting milestones.
The Energy Department’s new model is based around increased use of indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity (IDIQ) contracts that the Department of Defense has used extensively.
But at the DOE nuclear cleanup office, there “is not a common understanding of this common outcome throughout the organization,” according to the report. Agency headquarters, Environmental Management fields offices, contractors, and regulators will all need to understand the approach if it is to succeed, according to the document.
The end-state contracting model was launched under former Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White, who resigned under pressure in June. Major contracts at the Hanford Site, expected to be awarded in coming months, will be the first crop to implement an end state approach. “An explicit re-affirmation from EM senior leadership of its continued commitment is important to ensure unity of effort to maintain momentum and deliver the expected benefits,” according to the report.
