June 18, 2014

Contemplating Competition, NNSA Issues RFI for Kansas City Plant

By ExchangeMonitor

The National Nuclear Security Administration took the first tentative steps toward competing its Kansas City Plant contract yesterday, issuing a Request for Information that seeks input from companies interested in the contract to run the agency’s main non-nuclear production facility. Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies has been the longtime contractor running the facility, and when the contract was last competed in 2000, it had no competition to retain the contract. Honeywell has been one of the highest performing contractors in the weapons complex and is on the verge of completing a move into a new plant, but the RFI issued yesterday seems tailored toward figuring out how to generate interest in the contract. Honeywell’s contract to run the site expires Sept. 30, 2015.

In the RFI, the NNSA asks companies whether they’d be interested in bidding for the contract, and for input on “physical, financial, legal, or technological barriers” to competition or other risks to companies that the agency should consider. The agency said it envisions a five-year contract with another five years in options. “NNSA is considering whether to conduct a competitive acquisition for a follow-on contract and industry input is of significant interest to NNSA as the acquisition strategy is developed,” the agency said. The agency also asked companies for suggestions on improvements to the current contract and to the solicitation process, including ideas for “proposal preparation instructions and evaluation criteria that would streamline the solicitation” and “meaningful cost estimating information” that could be included in bids and used by the agency to evaluate costs. Responses to the RFI are due to Contracting Officer Steve Sandager by 5 p.m. Mountain Daylight Time July 8.

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