October 20, 2014

PEC Protests DOE HSS Security Support Services Contract Award to Link Technologies

By ExchangeMonitor

The Department of Energy has stopped work on a recent contract award to Link Technologies after a team led by Project Enhancement Corporation filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office late last week. The protest represents the latest turn of events in a year-long battle over the $44 million security support services small business set-aside contract to the Office of Health, Safety and Security, which was originally awarded to PEC last year through the National Nuclear Security Administration’s technical services blanket purchase agreement. Link Technologies, however, successfully challenged PEC’s eligibility for the contract as a small business with the Small Business Administration, and the SBA’s Office of Hearings and Appeals rejected PEC’s appeal of the size determination earlier this month.

In its protest with the GAO, one of PEC’s arguments is believed to be that if its proposal was disqualified due to a size standard challenge, the contract should have been recompeted because there was only one other bid—from Link. PEC, which is a member of the MELE team for NNSA’s technical services BPA and teamed with Protection Strategies Incorporated on the HSS contract, did not respond to a request for comment.

Link’s initial size standard challenge centered on an exception under the North American Industry Classification System size standard utilized by the PEC team. The three NAICS code used for the procurement (engineering services, administrative management and general management consulting services, and environmental consulting services) each have a $14 million size standard, which would have precluded PEC from bidding, but each schedule also includes a $35.5 million exception for military and aerospace equipment and military weapons. PEC qualified for the contract under the exception, but the SBA found that the exception did not apply to the procurement, disqualifying PEC’s bid. The Request for Proposals for the contract did not explicitly allow companies to use the exception, though other RFPs under the NNSA BPA did, and the SBA noted that the performance work statement does not mention weapons or aerospace equipment and focuses on administrative and technical services in support of HSS program offices. “The work the contractor will perform is not connected with weapons or aerospace equipment, nor with the design, engineering, or maintenance of weapons or aerospace equipment,” the SBA said in an Oct. 6 denial of PEC’s appeal.

Comments are closed.