Procurement officials at the U.S. Energy Department’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) are seeking to reduce the typical two-year process for awarding major contracts to one year.

Tamara Miles, federal procurement director for the DOE Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center, discussed efforts to expedite contract awards during a panel session last month at the Waste Management Symposia in Phoenix, Ariz.

Speeding up the contracting process was one target of last year’s 45-day review of EM operations ordered by Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management James Owendoff, Miles said. Owendoff at the time headed DOE’s nuclear cleanup operations, prior to the nomination and confirmation of Anne Marie White as assistant energy secretary for environmental management.

Major EM competitive bidding can take too long — almost two-and-half years from the definition of requirements to contract award, Miles said, adding DOE hopes to cut the lead time by at least 50 percent.

To save time, the Office of Environmental Management wants increased standardization in terms and conditions used in requests for proposals. This is evidently intended to prevent starting from scratch on RFPs across the complex. “We’re trying to put together more or less a model RFP,” Miles said.

The cleanup office is also establishing a group of technical staff to provide expertise at the procurement level, Miles said.

The Energy Department believes it can save time and effort by reducing the information sought during the process. For example, the agency might eliminate the “experience factor” because it largely duplicates issues reviewed under “past performance,” Miles said. Also, EM might look at only the past five years of performance, rather than 10.

This approach could be tried out in the upcoming RFP for the $4 billion contract for support services at the Hanford Site in Washington state, which could hit the street in May, said Norbert Doyle, EM’s acting deputy assistant secretary for acquisition and project management. The department used much of the input it received from industry in drafting this RFP for “landlord” services at Hanford, he said: “We heard your comments. We take them seriously.”

Shortening procurement timelines, reducing the amount of information that must be submitted to DOE, and greater standardization in the RFP process are all changes sought by the Energy Facility Contractors Group, Longenecker & Associates Senior Vice President Martin Schneider said Thursday.

Contract bidders often feel they must “churn out endless amounts of data that no one really looks at,” Schneider said at the Energy Communities Alliance annual conference in Washington, D.C. Schneider is the former CEO of the ExchangeMonitor Publications & Forums.

DOE Plans Busy Cleanup Procurement Season

The DOE Office of Environmental Management has a busy procurement schedule for bid proposals and contract awards into 2019.

The most recent Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center timeline for requests for proposals and contract awards was presented in Doyle’s slides at last month’s Phoenix conference.

Highlights include:

• A potential $150 million contract for a technical services provider for the Portsmouth/Paducah Project Office could be issued between now and July. The request for proposals was issued in mid-2017 for the former gaseous diffusion facilities in Ohio and Kentucky. The combined contract would involve technical engineering, general administrative support, information technology infrastructure support, and overseeing safeguards and security.
• EM recently issued an RFP for the potential $250 million contract for construction of the Outfall 200 Mercury Treatment Facility at the Y-12 National Security Complex at Oak Ridge, Tenn. Contract award is anticipated from June to August.
• Following that, EM expects in the second quarter of fiscal 2019 to issue a request for proposals for the full cleanup contact at the Oak Ridge Reservation. The contract, worth $2 billion to $5 billion, is expected to be awarded in the second quarter of fiscal 2020.
• An RFP could drop by October for the potential $400 million environmental services contract at the Nevada National Security Site. Contract award is projected by September 2019. Responsibilities include soil remediation, decontamination and demolition, and the radioactive waste acceptance program. Navarro has the contract currently.
• Award of the management and operations contract for the Savannah River Site in South Carolina is targeted by June 2019. The Doyle slides list the RFP date as to be determined. The Energy Department has previously said a draft RFP could come by the end of April. The contract includes mission work for both EM and DOE’s semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration, along with managing the Savannah River National Laboratory. No estimated value is listed in Doyle’s presentation. Savannah River Nuclear Solutions has the current contract, which DOE recently said will be extended by one year, through July 31, 2019.
• The Energy Department by July could issue an RFP for paramilitary services contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina. The contract, worth anywhere from $1 billion to $3 billion, is anticipated by June 2019. The contractor would have to implement a safeguards and security program to meet requirements for DOE, EM, and the NNSA.
• An RFP for the 222-S Laboratory contract at Hanford could be issued by July, with the award, worth $400 million to $600 million, expected by the end of 2019. Wastren has the current contract for laboratory analysis and testing. Washington River Protection Solutions manages the lab.