By Leslie Hoffman
The Associated Press
Safeguards to guarantee existing benefits for lab workers and retirees, independent evaluation of the lab's science work, and a closer look at oversight of health and safety are among the recommendations sent to the National Nuclear Security Administration by members of Congress, watchdog groups and others to improve a proposed contract to manage Los Alamos National Laboratory.
The contract is going out to bid for the first time in the lab's 60-year-plus history.
An NNSA board, which is responsible for evaluating the bids, has received more than 200 pages of questions and comments on a draft request for proposals released last month.
"They're analyzing each of the comments. Then they'll decide whether they want to amend the (request for proposals) based on that analysis," said Al Stotts, a spokesman for the Albuquerque NNSA office.
Officials are unsure how long that process will take but hope to have a final proposal by mid-February, he said.
Some 120 pages of comments deal with pension and retirement issues for lab employees.
The impact of a potential switch in lab managers on employee benefits has been a source of major concern both within the lab and among state leaders and the congressional delegation.
"I was disappointed to find that the draft request for proposal contained language undermining our expectation that existing pension and post-retirement benefits would be retained in any future contract," Gov. Bill Richardson wrote in a letter Thursday to Energy Secretary-nominee Samuel Bodman.
Bodman has said he's committed to maintaining worker benefits.
Earlier this month, the NNSA bid evaluation board announced the formation of a benefits advisory panel comprised of Energy Department experts, the DOE actuarial adviser and a law firm that specializes in benefit issues.
Sen. Pete Domenici, R-N.M., calls the draft proposal's language on benefits for past, present and future employees "insufficient" and contends not enough emphasis has been placed on keeping employees.
Sen. Jeff Bingaman, D-N.M., said the proposal needs to be amended to include the applicants' benefits packages in the overall scoring system that the board will use to evaluate bids.
Both senators sent suggestions this month to NNSA chief Linton Brooks.
Bingaman also suggested an independent board to oversee the contractor on science and other issues not related to daily operations and called for oversight to protect the health and safety of workers and the surrounding community.
The Washington, D.C.-based Project on Government Oversight, or POGO, is among the watchdog groups that also submitted comments.
POGO wants the contractor to be required to pay fines for safety violations and civil fines for security violations at the lab. The University of California has been exempt from paying safety violation fines because it's a nonprofit, and POGO said there are no penalties for security violations.
The group also believes the contractor's annual award fee should be considered "a true award for performance and not an assumed payment" and that an independent evaluation of science and a DOE evaluation of contractor management should be done before the contract is awarded.
"The draft (request's) promotion of ıbest industry practices' should be tempered with the recognition that those standards are in reality rarely achieved by industry if left to their own devices," the group wrote. "Without external oversight, the incentives for contractors to pursue best industry practices are significantly reduced."
The government plans to select a contractor this summer to begin work Oct. 1. The new contract will cover five years, with possible extensions for another 15 years.
Los Alamos has been managed by the University of California since the lab's inception as a top-secret World War II project to develop the atomic bomb. However, the Energy Department decided to put the contract up for bid before its September expiration after a series of management failures and security problems.
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