The National Nuclear Security Administration is not planning to release the names of the Source Selection Authority or Source Evaluation Board for its Kansas City National Security Campus procurement, NNSA spokeswoman Shelley Laver said Friday. The agency announced the SEB for its Y-12/Pantex procurement, but shied away from revealing the SSA once the contract was protested and the agency made a contract decision with a new SSA. In recent memory, however, the agency has at least named the SEB chairmen, publicizing the leaders of the Lawrence Livermore and Los Alamos National Laboratory procurements. “We consider the name of the source selection authority and any source evaluation board member names to be procurement sensitive,” Laver said. “This is consistent with general practice across the Government. It allows the SEB to focus on their work without fielding questions that should be directed to the contracting officer.”
Laver also addressed the potential for competition on the procurement, suggesting that the NNSA was confident it would receive significant interest. When Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies won the contract in 2000, it was the only bidder, but this time around, the contract could draw interest from top Pentagon contractors like Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, and Raytheon along with IBM and Babcock & Wilcox. Laver said the NNSA received interest from “several potential offerors” after issued a Request for Information in June. “The RFI also requested industry input on potential barriers to competition as well as suggestions to streamline and improve the procurement process,” Laver said. “NNSA considered the input from industry in its decision and in its approach to the competition, and NNSA believes the resulting procurement will be highly competitive.”
