Federal decision on new protest of Y-12, Pantex contract due Sept. 25

Federal officials have a Sept. 25 deadline to rule on a new protest filed last week by one of the two teams that lost a contract competition earlier this year to manage two nuclear weapons plants in Tennessee and Texas.

The new bid protest was filed on June 17 by Nuclear Production Partners LLC, or NP2, a team led by Babcock and Wilcox Co. The U.S. Government Accountability Office has 100 days to respond to the latest protest but could issue a decision earlier.

The bid protest is related to the consolidated management and operating contract at the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge and Pantex Plant near Amarillo, Texas.

In a June 17 press release, B&W said NP2 had “expressed concern over the fairness of the procurement and selection process and the form and scope of the revised request for proposals issued to bidders on June 6.”

The team had several concerns related to the procurement process and was asking the GAO “to examine the fairness of the revised request for proposals and to ensure the RFP meets all government contracting requirements and fully addresses the GAO’s original decision and recommendation outlined on April 29, 2013, when our original protest was sustained,” said George Dudich, president of Babcock and Wilcox Technical Services Group Inc.

The GAO upheld the original protests in part on April 29. They were filed by NP2, of Lynchburg, Va., and Integrated Nuclear Production Solutions LLC, of Oak Ridge. The GAO raised questions about proposed savings and recommended that the procurement be re-opened and more information requested from the three bidding teams about their proposed cost savings. The GAO also recommended that the relative size of each team’s proposed cost savings be evaluated.