A dispute between the Department of Energy and Parsons over the return of approximately $20 million in provisional fee paid for work on the Savannah River Site’s Salt Waste Processing Facility grew more heated late last week, with DOE threatening to withhold payments on contractor invoices if the provisional fee is not returned, WC Monitor has learned. The dispute stretches back to April, when DOE requested the return of the provisional fee based on an assessment that Parsons is set to breach the cost cap contained in its contract for the SWPF. The request came just weeks after Parsons submitted a revised estimate-at-completion for the SWPF that increased the total project cost by more than $400 million, to approximately $1.7 billion.
Parsons, though, has pushed back against DOE’s request on the grounds that its contract does not allow for provisional fee to be returned over cost issues and that it remains uncertain whether Parsons has indeed breached the cost cap in its contract. Those arguments have not persuaded DOE, which sent Parsons a letter on May 31 demanding the return of the provisional fee within 10 business days, or else DOE would take the fee out of the contractor’s invoices. Both Parsons and the Department did not respond to requests for comment on June 1.