DOE PROVIDE MORE DETAILS ON WRPS FY13 AWARD FEE
WC Monitor
1/31/2014
A variety of performance concerns were behind the Department of Energy’s decision to withhold approximately $1.5 million in award fee from Hanford tank farms contractor Washington River Protection Solutions in Fiscal Year 2013, a DOE official said this week. According to documents DOE released in mid-January, WRPS earned approximately $6.5 million out of an available $8 million in award fee (81.1 percent) for its work in FY 2013 (WC Monitor. Vol. 25 No. 2). The documents did not provide any information, though, as to why DOE did not pay the $1.5 million, though they did say that WRPS received ratings of “very good” in six categories—conduct of operations; general management; quality assurance program compliance; nuclear safety; environmental regulatory management; and safety program implementation. In a written response to WC Monitor late this week, a DOE official said that the Department “would like to see improvement in: the timeliness and quality of submitted proposals; additional rigor and management oversight in the timekeeping system, labor reporting and operational controls; and, additional technical rigor and focus on timeliness of product delivery for nuclear safety.”
In total, WRPS earned approximately $19.1 million out of an available $20.6 million (92 percent) for its work in FY 2013. Along with the award fee, the contractor received the maximum $12.6 million tied to a set of performance-based incentives, which ranged from testing and inspection activities to completing waste retrieval from Hanford’s single-shell tanks. “WRPS delivered strong performance through the challenges over the past year,” the DOE official said this week. “They provided significant input into the development of the Hanford Tank Waste Retrieval, Treatment, and Disposition Framework, and over the course of the year improved the stewardship and overall management of risk at the Hanford Tank Farms.” WRPS declined to provide additional comment on its FY 2013 fee determination this week.
