During meetings today in Aiken, S.C., the three parties that bid on the Savannah River Site liquid waste contract could get some insight into what steps the Department of Energy will take after the Government Accountability Office in February sustained one of the bid protests over the $4.7 billion award to Savannah River EcoManagement.
An industry source said Tuesday he expects the bidding parties will, during separate meetings, receive “an explanation of what type of information” DOE’s Office of Environmental Management wants the parties to submit following the GAO decision. In a redacted version of its Feb. 8 decision, GAO put the onus on DOE to show the technical approach put forth by the winning bidder is viable.
The GAO has said, at a minimum, the agency should verify that Savannah River EcoManagement’s technical approach to waste processing functions as intended. In its decision, the GAO said the Energy Department failed to do so before awarding the contract last October.
The source said he would be highly surprised if DOE at the meetings announced any major decisions in the contracting proceeding.
Until DOE meets with the parties, it’s impossible to say how the agency might proceed, the source said.
The winning Savannah River EcoManagement team, which consists of BWX Technologies, Bechtel, and Honeywell, was the low bidder at $4.7 billion.
The GAO sustained the protest from a bidding team of AECOM and CH2M, which submitted the most expensive bid at just under $6 billion. It dismissed a protest from a Fluor-Westinghouse team, which came in with a $5.5 billion bid, because its arguments were either unpersuasive or were made in supplemental filings made after the bid protest deadline. Nevertheless, Fluor-Westinghouse has been invited to the Wednesday meetings with DOE, sources said.
