While it sustained one contract protest, the U.S. Government Accountability Office on Friday did not weigh in on which proposal the Energy Department Office of Environmental Management should have selected for a $4.7 billion liquid waste management contract at the Savannah River Site in South Carolina.
“GAO’s decision expresses no view as to the merits of the proposals submitted,” GAO Managing Associate General Counsel for Procurement Kenneth Patton said in a statement Friday.
Savannah River EcoManagement, a joint venture of BWXT Technical Services Group, Bechtel National, and Honeywell International, was awarded the 10-year contract on Oct. 12. The two other bidders –Fluor Westinghouse Liquid Waste Services and Savannah River Technology and Remediation, a joint venture of AECOM and CH2M – filed protests with the GAO on Oct 31.
BWXT and Bechtel are partners with CH2M in the AECOM-led liquid waste incumbent, Savannah River Remediation.
On Friday, the GAO revealed it had sustained the protest brought by the AECOM-CH2M team, which had “challenged the propriety of the agency’s evaluation in connection with the award of the contract,” according to the statement from the congressional auditor.
While the Fluor-Westinghouse protest was denied, the team could still benefit from a contract award reconsideration by DOE. In the Friday statement, Patton said it was up to DOE to decide whether it is necessary to reopen negotiations or re-evaluate the contract.
The Friday ruling was issued under a protective order because the decision might include proprietary information, GAO said. As a result, a public version of the decision won’t be released until the business sensitive information is scrubbed out. “GAO has directed counsel for the parties to promptly identify information that cannot be publicly released so that GAO can expeditiously prepare and release a public version of the decision,” according to the statement.
This process can typically take a couple weeks, according to the GAO bid protest website.
