October 29, 2015

Small Business Subcontracting Goals at the East Tennessee Technology Park

In April 2011, the Department of Energy awarded a nearly $2.2 billion contract to URS | CH2M Oak Ridge LLC (UCOR) for environmental cleanup at the East Tennessee Technology Park in Oak Ridge, Tennessee.  UCOR developed a Small Business Subcontracting Plan, as required by contract terms and the Federal Acquisition Regulation.  Under the plan, UCOR commits to awarding 65 percent of total subcontract dollars to small businesses through specified small business categories.  From August 2011 through August 2014, UCOR reported that 76 percent, or $331 million, of its subcontracted work was awarded to small businesses.

Nothing came to our attention to indicate that UCOR had not made adequate progress in meeting and reporting on its overall established small business subcontracting goals. While we did not discover any material issues, we identified instances where UCOR had incorrectly reported the socioeconomic status of some of its small business awards and did not include the signature date on many of the attestation documents.  Nonetheless, during our review, UCOR initiated action to improve the overall accuracy of reporting its performance metrics.

Topic: Management & Administration