Mike Nartker
WC Monitor
3/6/2015
As questions persist over whether any companies will choose to bid on the new Idaho Cleanup Project (ICP) Core contract, the top acquisition official in the Department of Energy’s Office of Environmental Management said this week that “the market” will ultimately decide the level of competition DOE gets for the job. “We … continue to take all reasonable action to ensure we have competition on this. We’ll work with what we get,” EM Deputy Assistant Secretary for Acquisition and Project Management Jack Surash said during a business forum held at DOE headquarters. “I think we’ve done everything we believe reasonable that we can do at this point and we’ll see what the market tells us.”
Surash did say he would like to receive more than one bid for the new contract, one of the major near-term business opportunities in the DOE cleanup program. “I’d want more competition, but if that’s what we get, it can be dealt with,” he said.
Bechtel Has Suspended Major Work on Bid
DOE is soon expected to release a final Request for Proposals for the new ICP Core contract, which is intended to replace the two current cleanup contracts at the Idaho site that are currently set to expire in September—one held by CH2M-WG Idaho that is responsible for the bulk of the cleanup work at the site; and one held by Idaho Treatment Group, LLC, to manage the Advanced Mixed Waste Treatment Project. Currently, Fluor appears to be the most likely to lead a bid for the new Idaho contract, and is believed to have assembled a team that includes CH2M Hill.
WC Monitor has learned that Bechtel has suspended major work on a bid for the new contract, though the contractor hasn’t yet ruled out competing for the new contract entirely. Bechtel informed the Department of Energy of its decision to suspend bid work during a set of one-on-ones the Department held via teleconferences with potential bidders in mid-February, according to officials. In a brief statement late last week, Bechtel spokesman Fred DeSousa said, “We do continue to evaluate the opportunity including the new set of planned changes released by the Department of Energy.”
Industry Long Concerned Over Potential Contract Provisions
Initially, as many as four teams were believed to have formed to compete for the new contract, but after DOE issued an initial draft RFP last fall, nearly all potential bidders made it clear that they could not bid on the contract as then outlined because of concerns over provisions that would make the winning contractor liable for costs above the target cost combined with uncertainties in the work scope to be performed.
In apparent response to industry concerns, DOE subsequently modified the draft RFP to remove a provision that would have made contractors responsible for all costs going forward once the target cost for the new contract had been exceeded by $150 million. But several other provisions in the draft RFP have continued to be a source of concern for industry officials, leading to continued questions over the actual level of competition DOE will see for the new contract. Last week, DOE outlined a new set of modifications for the contract, centering on changes to the proposed fee structure.
Updates on Other Planned Idaho Contracts
In his remarks this week, Surash provided brief updates on DOE’s other planned cleanup contracts for the Idaho site. He said he hopes to have out “within a couple of weeks” a final RFP for a planned small business contract to manage Nuclear Regulatory Commission-licensed facilities at Idaho and the Fort St. Vrain facility in Colorado. Surash also said that the schedule for the procurement for a contract for the calcine disposition project is still to be determined. DOE previously said the calcine disposition project contract would run from Oct. 1, 2015 to Sept. 30, 2024, but Surash said “there’s nothing near term” planned. “Essentially we’re going to be doing some internal programmatic technical reviews on this matter,” he said. “We’re frankly programmatically looking at the situation.”
