The Department of Energy said Tuesday it is justified in extending the current Swift & Staley landlord services agreement at the Paducah Site in Kentucky for up to six months while the Small Business Administration decides whether the company is too big to receive a follow-on contract for the work.
The Small Business Administration (SBA) case is under a protective order, so once the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals does issue its decision, there likely will be a delay of a week or two until a publicly-available version appears on the panel’s website, an SBA spokesperson said by email Wednesday.
DOE awarded the extension, worth up to $25-million over six-months, on Monday, according to a justification for other than full and open competition posted online Tuesday. The extension includes a three-month base and three one-month option periods, DOE said. That could stretch the deal, which started in December 2015 and was valued at $231-million before the extension, through Sept. 30. The contract ran through Wednesday, before the extension.
In the justification, DOE said no one volunteered to provide security and other services in Swift & Staley’s stead, even after the agency told industry in February of its plans to extend the incumbent.
Sometime after December, someone filed a size protest with the Small Business Administration about the five-year, $160-million follow-on infrastructure support services contract DOE awarded to Swift & Staley. The SBA ruled that the incumbent was too big to qualify for the new contract, but Swift & Staley quickly appealed the decision to the SBA Office of Hearings and Appeals.
DOE has said it will not authorize Swift & Staley to perform any site support services work under the protested follow-on contract until the SBA appeals board rules on the size issues. The board had not issued a decision at deadline for Weapons Complex Monitor.
