ARLINGTON, VA – The second-highest person at the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) said Tuesday he is “absolutely considering contracting differently.”
Scott Pappano, NNSA’s principal deputy administrator, gave a keynote on the second day of Exchange Monitor’s Nuclear Deterrence Summit.
“The world I came from, you know, in shipbuilding, advanced procurement was very much a fee driven kind of contracting relationship, right?” Pappano said. “I’m a fan of how we do the M&O contracts right now as far as they provide the agility of flexibility that we need to go to shift work, and do the things that sites do in response to perhaps changing priorities at the national level.”
The management and operating (M&O), or prime, contractors normally consist of joint ventures between companies, and are not only responsible for daily operations at weapons complex sites but also for the long-term, national security-dependent missions at the sites.
However, Pappano said he’s “not a big fan of award fee” and wants to “drive out things like fixed fee.”
Pappano said “extending contracts” was “very valuable,” and part of his job was to “figure out what motivates the M&O contractors.”
Pappano also said the next three labs with upcoming contract expirations are Nevada National Security Site, Sandia National Laboratories and Y-12 National Security Complex.
Pappano told Exchange Monitor there were “no decisions on those,” but NNSA was looking to evaluate how performance was going for each contract. “What are my evaluation criteria about whether to extend those contracts or recompete those contracts.”