WASHINGTON — While leadership is changing at the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management, a recently-initiated approach to procurement remains in place.
Some people have inquired recently if the end state contracting approach is still in effect, Norbert Doyle, deputy assistant secretary, acquisition and project management, told the House Nuclear Cleanup Caucus here Wednesday evening on Capitol Hill.
The contracting reform, championed in the past year by departing Assistant Secretary for Environmental Management Anne Marie White who leaves effective June 14, remains in effect.
Both Doyle and Undersecretary of Energy Paul Dabbar said bids are in for the first two major end state procurements – contracts for tank closure, and Central Plateau remediation – at the Hanford Site in Washington state, and DOE is reviewing the bids.
The new approach applies only to cleanup contracts, not things like managing a laboratories, providing site “landlord” services, or paramilitary security, Doyle said.
The approach is a move away from the more “cost-based” approach to contract and toward more reliance on single-award, indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity agreements, Doyle said. The cost estimates and task orders drawn up by DOE won’t be drafted years in advance, he added.
Contractors who prove highly effective in meeting important cleanup milestone can potentially earn up to 15% fee. In addition, the approach also includes mechanisms to make it easier for the Energy Department to remove poor-performing vendors, Doyle said.
Some of DOE’s responsibilities for negotiating contract specifics will shift to field sites and away from the Environmental Management Consolidated Business Center in Cincinnati, Ohio.
What’s not changing is that the major contracts issued by the agency will still rely heavily on subcontracts performed by small business, Doyle said.
