Union files second protest in Energy job competition

The National Treasury Employees Union on Friday filed a second protest related to an Energy Department public-private competition for logistics work.

The union argued that a new solicitation for quotations published as part of the job competition fails to comply with Office of Management and Budget's competitive sourcing requirements, in part because it allows contractors to submit bids on a "time and materials" basis.

The amended solicitation, issued on the heels of a request for bids that the union successfully protested, seeks proposals for logistics work at Energy facilities in Washington, Germantown, Md., and Albany, Ore. The competition is for work performed by about 90 federal employees.

An Energy spokeswoman said department officials have not finished reviewing the protest. She declined to comment further.

NTEU first filed a protest after Energy selected Alexandria, Va.-based Logistics Applications Inc. over the federal employee group as the winner of the contest, based on a "best value" assessment. The union argued that the award relied on evaluation criteria not stated in the solicitation.

The Energy Department's senior procurement executive upheld that protest, and the department issued a new request for quotations that closed last Friday. NTEU has protested this amended solicitation, arguing that the contracting officer overstepped his bounds.

The contract should have been awarded to the federal employees following the previous protest, NTEU argued. Even if it had been appropriate to rebid the work, two major provisions in the new solicitation violate the terms of Circular A-76, the document governing competitive sourcing, the union claimed.

The amended solicitation calls for private companies to submit bids on a "time and materials" basis, under which a bidder commits to certain pay rates for services performed but is not bound to a specific total cost. NTEU President Colleen Kelley asserted that this type of structure is inconsistent with an A-76 competition.

"I've never seen this before in any of the other competitions we've been involved in, and I think it's absolutely inappropriate," Kelley said. She noted in a statement that this setup would allow a private bidder to "submit a low-end bid with full knowledge that it will cost more to complete the required tasks."

Federal employees must commit to a total dollar amount for their bid, NTEU said. This means that bids cannot be effectively compared on a cost basis, the union argued.

Secondly, the NTEU is protesting a requirement in the amended solicitation that calls for the federal employees to submit a recruitment plan for the work to be performed. The private contractor is not required to submit such a plan, leading NTEU to charge that the requirement constitutes an unreasonable burden on the federal workers.

Finally, Kelley asserted that information relevant to the process has been provided late, compromising her legal rights.

The Energy Department is required to make a best effort to respond to the NTEU protest by Jan. 20. The contracting officer may move forward in evaluating bids in the meantime, but cannot award a contract until the protest has been resolved.