May 29, 2014

NNSA TO EXTEND SANDIA CONTRACT TWO YEARS, ALLOWING FOR COMPETITION

By ExchangeMonitor

The National Nuclear Security Administration at long last is moving to compete the Sandia National Laboratories management and operating contract, announcing yesterday that it was extending Lockheed Martin’s contract to run the lab for two years (with an option for a third) while it opens up the contract for competition. Lockheed Martin’s current contract to run the lab expires at the end of the month, and the NNSA said it is extending the current contract a month while it negotiated a longer-term extension with the lab contractor. The long-term extension will “allow the contract and the subsequent competition to incorporate recommendations from the congressional advisory panels as well as Departmental initiatives to improve the mission effectiveness and the cost efficiency of the NNSA laboratories,” the NNSA said in a statement.

The NNSA said little about its plans for Sandia since issuing a Request for Information on consolidating all or part of the Sandia contract with the Kansas City Plant’s management and operating contract in August of 2012, but in recent months, Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz is believed to have sided toward a shorter term extension and a competition at Sandia. Acting NNSA Administrator Bruce Held also has recently suggested that the agency move away from its current contracting strategy and toward more of a “public interest” model for its M&O contracts that includes substantially lower fees than have accompanied recent contracts at Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore, and Y-12/Pantex. In a statement, Sandia National Laboratories Director Paul Hommert welcomed the announcement. “This is a positive development that offers stability for the Labs and the workforce, and I look forward to concluding the details of this arrangement in the near term,” Hommert said in a message to employees.

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