Bechtel National earned only 48 percent of the fee available for the second half of 2013 for its work on the Hanford Waste Treatment Plant, according to information the Department of Energy released yesterday. In total, Bechtel National earned $3.025 million out of an available $6.3 million in award fee, according to a DOE award fee scorecard. Bechtel National’s previous low mark for fee performance was 49.6 percent, which the contractor earned for its work in the first half of 2013 and the first half of 2012. Bechtel National agreed to forego all fee for the second half of 2012. The DOE Office of River Protection declined to provide additional comment on Bechtel National’s latest fee determination yesterday. However, in a March 11 letter to BNI Project Director Peggy McCullough, ORP Manager Kevin Smith wrote, “BNI’s continued improvement in transparency and customer service orientation was very pronounced during the end of the performance period. With continued emphasis on these, BNI should continue to improve performance during the next evaluation period.”
The bulk of the fee Bechtel National was eligible to receive for the second half of 2013—$3.5 million—was tied to the contractor’s ability to self-identify and address issues in a new approach Smith put into place last year. Of that $3.5 million, Bechtel National earned $1.715 million, according to DOE’s scorecard. Among the “key positives” listed in the scorecard was Bechtel National’s “significant improvement in transparency” and improvement in self-identification of issues. DOE also noted, though, in its “areas for improvement” that Bechtel National had struggled with “internal metrics/evaluation on quality of self assessments to understand effectiveness” and that “many” of the contractor’s corrective action plans “required significant rework to be fully comprehensive.”
In a message to employees yesterday, McCullough said, “Over the next several weeks, we will be seeking increased understanding of the details underpinning our areas for improvement to ensure that we learn and act upon these areas to continue to increase our customer’s satisfaction. With their encouragement regarding the improvements we are making in several key areas and feedback on areas for improvement, WTP is well positioned for future success and even better performance evaluations.” Bechtel National declined to provide additional comment beyond McCullough’s message.