Defense Environment Alert
December 31, 2002

GAO DENIES PROTEST OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS CONTRACT AWARD AT PUEBLO

The General Accounting Office (GAO) has denied an award protest over a contract to design, build and operate a chemical weapons neutralization plant in Pueblo, CO. The Dec. 16 decision from GAO's comptroller general allows work to resume on a full-scale pilot plant to destroy the chemical weapons stockpiled in Pueblo.

GAO found the Army's award to Bechtel National Inc. did not violate federal contracting law, as charged by bid protester Pueblo Environmental Solution (PES) in October, a GAO source says. PES, the only other contractor to bid, contested a Sept. 27 decision by Army Materiel Command to award Bechtel a cradle-to-grave contract for a plant that will be used to neutralize and then biodegrade chemical weapons.

"Resolution of the protest allows the Bechtel team to start work on the project's first task, which is to produce a design-build plan for a full-scale pilot plant...," DOD's Assembled Chemical Weapons Assessment program says in a Dec. 17 press release. The protest prompted the Army to stop work on the project until the challenge could be resolved. The September award came after a lengthy review by DOD over whether incineration or an alternative technology such as neutralization should be employed to destroy the 2,611 tons of mustard agent-filled munitions at the site.

GAO issued a 17-page "protected" decision in the case, which means it contains proprietary language and won't be publicly released until the parties agree to a redacted version, the GAO source says.

PES contended the Army arbitrarily decided that Bechtel's slightly better technical rating justified the award, despite Bechtel's lower-rated management approach and its higher cost, according to a redacted version of its protest letter (Defense Environment Alert, Oct. 22, p9).