March 17, 2014

NNSA ADDS OCI LANGUAGE ON CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT SERVICES WORK

By ExchangeMonitor

The National Nuclear Security Administration has amended the Request for Quotes it issued last month for its Enterprise Construction Management Services contract, seeking to clear up confusion about conflicts of interest that many in the industry fear could severely limit the pool of bidders interested in the contract. In the amendment, the agency narrowed the potential conflicts of interest that could exclude companies from the contract to work within the NNSA after appearing to prohibit all DOE work when the RFQ was released last week. Specifically, the amendment states: “the Contractor, its Team Member(s), and/or its subcontractor(s), during the period of performance of this BPA [blanket purchasing agreement], shall be ineligible to enter into a contract at any NNSA Laboratory, Site, and/or Plant either as a Federal prime, or as an NNSA Management and Operating Contractor(s) and/or its subcontractor. For other than NNSA sites ineligibility will be determined on a case-by-case basis.”

The language still severely limits the contractors that could compete for the work to those without NNSA work or aspirations for NNSA work over the next eight years (the five-year maximum term of the contract plus a three-year blackout period), but it could clear the way for companies that perform a lot of work for DOE’s Office of Environmental Management and Office of Science to bid. “It is not the intent of NNSA to limit the opportunities and contractual relationships of the ECMS Contractor, Team Members and subcontractors across the Department,” the NNSA said in responses to questions and answers on the RFQ, many of which dealt with the conflict of interest issue.

It’s unclear whether the changes will have the desired impact on the contracting community. One questioner called the solicitation “overly restrictive” and said there are “few, if any, PES Schedule holders who are small businesses, are knowledgeable of NNSA design and construction projects, and will accept the restrictions of the special organizational conflicts of interest provisions of the solicitation.” The questioner suggested that the contract’s scope of work was also suited for the General Services Administration’s MOBIS schedule rather than just the professional engineering services (PES) schedule under which it is being competed. “Allowing MOBIS contract holders will increase the number of firms who meet those criteria, will facilitate teaming arrangements among PES and MOBIS contract holders, and be will compatible with the scopes of both Schedules,” the questioner said. The NNSA, however, did not buy into that argument, stating that a scope determination conducted with the GSA confirmed that the majority of the work falls under the PES schedule

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