Will Long-Running Search for LM Contractor End This Week?

The Department of Energy’s arduous search for a new support contractor for the Office of Legacy Management could finally come to an end this week with a third contract award decision. Proposals submitted for the new contract are set to expire at the end of this week, though it remains to be seen if DOE will ask bidders to once again extend their proposals’ expiration dates as the Department has done previously. DOE is currently in the midst of a third evaluation of the bids submitted for the new Legacy Management contract, which was set-aside for small businesses and has been valued at approximately $250 million over five years.

The procurement for the new contract stretches back to the fall of 2010, when the Department began conducting market research to determine if the contract could continue to be set-aside for small businesses. The Department issued a Request for Proposals in November 2011, and bids were due by mid-February 2012. DOE initially awarded the contract to Portage in April 2013, leading to challenges from Navarro and the team of Wastren Advantage-S.M. Stoller. In response, DOE decided in May 2013 to take corrective action by re-evaluating all eight bids, and then chose again in early 2014 to award the new contract to Portage. Both Navarro and the WAI-Stoller team again protested DOE’s decision, and this spring the GAO sustained Navarro’s protest but denied WAI-Stoller’s. The incumbent LM support services contract, which has been extended multiple times, is now set to expire at the end of March.