The Department of Energy’s December award of the new $160-million Paducah Infrastructure Support Services Contract to Swift & Staley could end up being withdrawn, sources told Weapons Complex Morning Briefing in the past week.
Federal representatives are looking into whether the Paducah-based incumbent contractor exceeds the size limit for this particular small-business set-aside and the award is expected to be recalled, an industry source said by phone Tuesday.
Swift & Staley “were not small enough” and are “out,” one source said.
The Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management (EM) “does not comment on active procurement matters,” a spokesperson for the office said in a Tuesday email, more than a month after EM announced it had awarded the follow-on deal to the incumbent.
It was not clear Tuesday in what forum exactly the award is being reviewed. There was no bid protest on the public Government Accountability Office website, and press officers at the Small Business Administration did not respond to email inquiries.
Swift & Staley did not immediately respond to an email and phone call Tuesday seeking comment.
The new landlord services contract extends five years with a 60-day transition period, a 34-month base period and 24-month option period, DOE said in the press release announcing the deal on Dec. 10.
Swift & Staley is the incumbent services provider at the former gaseous diffusion plant site in Kentucky, under a $224-million contract that began in December 2015 and is set to run through March 31.
The contract includes a slew of tasks ranging from maintenance of grounds, roadways and parking lots to pest control, records management and security.
Should the award be recalled by DOE, it would mark the second time in less than three years that a mid-size contract at the Portsmouth-Paducah Project Office has been pulled back. In August 2020, DOE re-awarded a technical services contract at the Portsmouth contract in Ohio to a Pro2Serve subsidiary. The same company initially won the contract in June 2018.
