URS | CH2M Hill Oak Ridge (UCOR) has reported that 76 percent, or $331 million, of its subcontracted work at East Tennessee Technology Park was awarded to small businesses from August 2011 to August 2014, surpassing UCOR’s own 65-percent goal stated in its small business subcontracting plan, according to an Energy Department inspector general’s
report released yesterday. The IG’s office did not find any “material issues” in its review to determine whether the Oak Ridge Office of Environmental Management was ensuring UCOR was adequately progressing and properly reporting on its small business subcontracting goals for cleanup of the former uranium enrichment site. However, the report says UCOR had incorrectly reported the socioeconomic status of some of its small business awards and did not include the signature date on many attestation documents.
“Nothing came to our attention to indicate that UCOR had not made adequate progress in meeting and reporting on its overall established small business subcontracting goals,” the report states. “Nonetheless, during our review, UCOR initiated action to improve the overall accuracy of reporting its performance metrics.”
For its review, the IG reviewed 83 small business subcontracts and all fiscal 2014 purchase and blanket order procurements processed by UCOR over $10,000. Specifically, the IG found inconsistent socioeconomic statuses in 23 percent of those subcontracts and 24 percent of purchase and blanket orders. Those statuses did not match the socioeconomic status in subcontractors’ documents. “While these inconsistencies resulted in UCOR inaccurately reporting small business subcontracting performance metrics to the Department, they would not have, in our opinion, affected UCOR’s overall performance in achieving its small business goals,” the IG stated.
EM awarded UCOR the contract for ETTP cleanup in April 2011. "UCOR’s commitment to the small business community has been integral to the success in completing the environmental cleanup work at the ETTP," said UCOR spokeswoman Anne Smith. "It is UCOR’s desire to continue this success by utilizing small businesses throughout the option period that will exceed the small business goals set forth by DOE."
