In official replies to questions about the next big contract for the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico, the Energy Department responded to some local concerns that the next lab manager might not be as good for the community as the current manager.
However, the agency appeared to preserve at least the option of retaining a contract fee limit the county decried as too low to attract a quality bidder.
LANL prime Los Alamos National Security (LANS), a partnership led by the University of California and Bechtel National, is on the job until Sept. 30, 2018. In the meantime, DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) has released a draft request for proposals for a follow-on contract that late last month provoked a chorus concerns from locals.
In a July letter to DOE, the Los Alamos County government complained that the agency’s draft solicitation for the next LANL management and operations deal — a planned 10-year pact with a five-year base and five one-year options — limited the fees the next contractor could collect. The draft solicitation says the proposed fixed fee for lab management cannot exceed 1 percent of the estimated cost, and the proposed award fee cannot exceed 0.5 percent of the cost, for each contract period.
County officials said that could hurt DOE’s ability to hire the most technically qualified contractor.
In an official question-and-answer document DOE posted online Aug. 11, the agency said “[s]olicitations are required to identify a maximum available fee and may invite offerors to propose a fee less than the maximum available.” However, the agency insisted that “[h]iring the best possible contractor is NNSA’s priority, as reflected in the draft RFP [request for proposal].”
Also in their July letter, Los Alamos locals said the final solicitation for LANL management, expected in September, should include explicit language mandating support for northern New Mexico schools and businesses that the draft solicitation lacks.
In its Aug. 11 post, DOE said it would make sure the next LANL contract “honors existing subcontracts and other similar agreements” at the lab, as well as memorandums of understanding entered into by LANS. The agency also said the final solicitation would include language cementing the lab contractor’s legal requirement to support the Los Alamos Public School District.
The question and answer document did not identify the parties who asked questions of the agency.
