Hanford contractor earns $19 million incentive pay

Mission Support Alliance, which provides sitewide services at the Hanford nuclear reservation, earned $19.2 million in incentive pay for its work in fiscal 2016, the Department of Energy announced this week.

The award is 91 percent of the estimated $21.1 million maximum it could have earned based on its performance.

It’s performance was judged by DOE to be slightly better than in fiscal 2015, when it earned $18.8 million — 89 percent of the incentive pay available.

“MSA performed well against a majority of the performance measures,” said Doug Shoop, Richland Operations Office manager in a letter to its contractor.

MSA employs 1,900 workers and its contract covers Hanford services such as utilities, information technology, security, fire protection, management of the HAMMER training center, road maintenance. The company also does portfolio management for DOE, including providing data to help DOE plan for and meet deadlines.

The 10-year contract was valued at $3 billion when it was awarded in 2009.

DOE released a scorecard that included MSA’s significant achievements during fiscal 2016 and a brief statement on areas needing improvement.

DOE said that despite MSA’s “very good” performance, it lost some incentive pay in the areas of “quality, regulatory compliance and infrastructure.”

MSA continues to work to stay ahead of maintenance of aging infrastructure, some of it dating back to the ‘40s, which has led to a water leaks and electrical outages.

It exceeded plans for catching up a maintenance backlog for water, sewer and electrical utilities, DOE said. On 46 milestones for overall maintenance in a five-year plan, it met 43 on time.

DOE praised MSA for working closely and extensively with Hanford contractors performing environmental cleanup work to plan ahead for projects and have the support services and equipment needed ready and available.

Its cultural review staff responded quickly to requests of assessments of possible archaeological sites to keep Hanford work progressing as quickly as possible, DOE said in its scorecard.

The Hanford Fire Department, which is under MSA, “did an exceptional job during a hazardous fire season this year,” the scorecard said.

The fire department worked with U.S. Fish and Wildlife, which manages DOE Hanford land in the Hanford Reach National Monument, to establish effective wild land fire planning. Firefighters also established and maintained fire breaks.

“These continued efforts resulted in no major fires that threatened Hanford Site facilities,” the scorecard said.

MSA also worked closely with DOE and CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Co. on support to clean out and demolish the highly contaminated and complex Plutonium Finishing Plant, including planning an emergency preparedness drill and establishing security areas at the Central Waste Complex to receive waste shipments for storage from the plant.

The majority of the pay earned by MSA was for specific project accomplishments outlined before the start of the fiscal year. It received nearly $13 million for meeting milestones, or 94 percent of the pay available. It received nearly $6.3 million based on a subjective review by DOE, or 85 percent of the pay available in the category.

Mission Support Alliance is a partnership of Liedos, Jacobs Engineering and Centerra Group.

This story was originally published May 25, 2017 at 12:18 PM with the headline "Hanford contractor earns $19 million incentive pay."