The Civilian Board of Contract Appeals (CBCA) is again telling the U.S. Energy Department to pay a former cleanup contractor at the Idaho National Laboratory more than $33 million in fees.
In a ruling issued Aug. 8, a three-judge panel for the CBCA said DOE’s reasoning for failing to pay CH2M-WG Idaho (WGI) the full amount is little more than warmed-over arguments the board already rejected in a 2017 decision involving the fee payments.
The contractor asserts the federal agency is seeking “to upend the decision” in the prior case “that was not appealed and is final and binding on DOE, by rearguing the very same facts and law that it presented.”
The contract appeals board concurred. “The Board denies DOE’s motion for reconsideration because it does nothing more than advance the same facts and arguments that were already addressed.”
The CBCA originally said the Energy Department must pay WGI more than $27.3 million in incentive fees and almost $6 million in safety fees, also known as safe units. But a DOE contracting officer subsequently held that $4.79 million of the $27.3 million is a double fee payment and should be withheld. The same contracting officer said the department could withhold the entire amount for the safety units. The CBCA this month disagreed.
