NNSA questions and responses to LANL draft RFP to date (more responses pending): NNSA's responses emphasize the RFP will be done by the book (i.e., federal acquisition regulations).
Questions and Answers August 11, 2017 Draft Request for Proposal DE-SOL-0011206 Los Alamos National Laboratory
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9eIrcyRIQxyOXFyRWZhTnJqR0E/view?usp=drivesdk
36 comments:
Looks like the state and local tax lappers lead off in the first round of questions and responses.
They key answer was to the keeping the "for profit" model. NNSA just said that it is open to all bidders for profit or not. In other word NNSA will do what it wants and what is potentially right for the nation not what will help get a few more bucks to town and state.
What is shocking is about how so utterly transparent the questions to NNSA have been. They are not even hiding what the agenda is. Just give us free money !!! We demand it, free, free fee money!!!. Again I urge DOE and NNSA to hold firm to their commitments to the United States. LANL serves the entire nation and already serves northern New Mexico, to give extra perks is just out and out corruption and could comprise the lab mission and hence the United States.
Did you mean compromise?
Are you really claiming that having to pay 4% of the budget in GRTs would compromise the whole mission?
Pardon me, but that sounds a little crazy, doesn't it? No, it actually sounds a lot crazy. Totally nuts.
Why? DOE funding levels already account for GRT and all other overhead expenses like Bill P's 8% LDRD science...cough...slush fund.
Are you really claiming that having to pay 4% of the budget in GRTs would compromise the whole mission?
Pardon me, but that sounds a little crazy, doesn't it? No, it actually sounds a lot crazy. Totally nuts.
Why? DOE funding levels already account for GRT and all other overhead expenses like Bill P's 8% LDRD science...cough...slush fund.
Bill P's "slush fund" is 6% not 8% and actually does something very useful for the nation. 4% GRT is just pure waste.
The problem with the 4% is than you add on another 4-5% of fee and soon you get to 10%. That is already larger than LDRD, and yes LDRD is vital for science, recruitment, keeping the lab up to date on current science and so on. The biggest problem with the for profit model is as we have see is the culture it brings, which is not a service culture but a steal everything you can culture.
I urge DOE and NNSA to hold firm to their commitments to the United States. LANL serves the entire nation and already serves northern New Mexico by providing many jobs, to give extra perks is just out and out corruption and does not serve the United States. I would also add that it does not even help the town of Los Alamos that much.
When one does not earn the money it tends to be wasted on needless projects. How does the money get used? like this.
“I spent half my money on gambling, alcohol and wild women. The other half I wasted.”
4% + 4% = 10% is CRAZY arithmetic.
LDRD doesn't pay for cutting edge science as much as it keeps Bill P's useless friends employed. Few things from Bill P's LDRD era have been successful. Very few.
Wait, didn't the crazy person say that UC reinvests its portion of the fee back into research? Why is that counted as being wasted?
The problem is NOT the for-profit "culture" - whatever phony thing that is. After all, the LANS LLC is led by UC, a not-for-profit entity. The problem IS UC and their EXTREMELY poor quality managers.
The crazy person doesn't seem to know that DOE spends almost all their funding on for-profit contractors and few are as poorly run as UC runs LANS.
NNSA clearly and correctly stated that the primary objective of the contract is mission driven. The next contractor will be evaluated based on its past performance and its capabilities - that is classic procurement 101 best value. The lab itself uses a best value process when it procures major acquisitions such as design and construction services, super computers, etc. Everyone will be measured the same, using the same past performance criteria.
When Bechtel and company won the current contract, it was very strategic in its proposal. It was incorporated in Delaware so it was able to have status as a small business. Under procurement regulations, the business size stays the same throughout the life of the contract, even if revenue and number of employees affect its business size rating. It was also a commercial enterprise so GRT for materials were taxable for the first time (under UC, the Lab always paid GRT for services). The support services contract, which was $100M per year and which no longer exists, was a main source of GRT for Los Alamos, as well as the guard services contract.
This week, all prospective vendors will attend a site visit and also meet one on one with the contracting and program personnel at NNSA at the site office.
Typically, the contracting office will post a list of attendees on the acquisition website since this is public information. We will know in the next couple of weeks by virtue of the list of attendees who will be submitting a proposal and/or is interested in the contract.
It wasn't Bechtel and company, it was UC and company that formed LANS. UC is the lead. Bechtel was just ONE of the companies brought on board to shore up UC's shortfalls.
LANS totally failed, especially when evaluated on management and operations. Of that, there's no question. LANS is led by UC. Of that, there's no question.
That means UC failed. It's as simple as that.
The fact that UC failed doesn't bode well for any bidder with the failure that is UC on the team.
That means UC failed. It's as simple as that.
The fact that UC failed doesn't bode well for any bidder with the failure that is UC on the team.
August 28, 2017 at 10:32 AM
You can spin this all you want but everyone and I do mean EVERYONE else thinks it is Bechtel. That is just the way people see it. I would bet this is also the way NNSA sees and is why UC is bidding and Bechtel is no. What is your agenda anyway, you come across as very bitter and really weird. What did UC do you to you, did you wife leave you for someone who works at UC. Did domeone from UC steal your lunch money?
If Bechtel doesn't bid it's because they are a minor player in this field. Just like they are in LANS. NO SPIN, just the fact.
You sure are a dimwit liar. Everyone recognizes that UC is in charge and UC brought the weakest management team any National Lab has ever suffered under.
You sure are a dimwit liar. Everyone recognizes that UC is in charge and UC brought the weakest management team any National Lab has ever suffered under.
August 28, 2017 at 1:13 PM
Sorry pal, but there no "everyone". In fact do you know anyone at LANL, anyone? Do you work at LANL? If you did you will be hard pressed to find a single person who thinks UC is leading LANL, they all think it is Bechtel. Perhaps everyone is wrong but that is the belief and this is also pretty widespread beyond the lab. Could you please produce someone beside yourself that thinks it is all UCs fault and not Bechtel? Did it ever occur to you that some people might know a bit more about these things than you? Beside a single troll on this blog everyone seems to agree that Bechtel has been the problem. Could you also please explain your issue with UC, why is it so personal with you?
1:39 PM
What about the following FACTS tells you that Bechtel is in charge?
LANL Management
ADs: 11 UC, 1 Bechtel, 1 AECOM, 1 other
PADs: 4 UC, 1 Bechtel
Director: UC
You must hope to win the argument by causing us to laugh at you so hard we all split our guts.
ADs: 11 UC, 1 Bechtel, 1 AECOM, 1 other
PADs: 4 UC, 1 Bechtel
Director: UC
You must hope to win the argument by causing us to laugh at you so hard we all split our guts.
No one is laughing because as I said, you seem to be the only one who wants to defend Bechtel. Bechtel sets the tone and pays off the managers, why do you think they are paid so much? Who keeps the profit, Bechtel, who leverages additional profit Bechtel, who has been rotating people through every 3 years Bechtel.
Again all I can say is at LANL everyone says Bechtel is the problem, if you work at LANL you would also know this. You do not work at LANL, you do not have the facts, and you have a clear agenda. You have repeatedly shown your lack of understating of LANL, what is done at LANL and why it is done. You repeatedly ignore the history of UC managing the labs and most telling is you simply ignore LLNL in all of this. The best bet is that you are Chris Mechles a bitter crazy ex-lab employee who hates UC and LANL. Fine you the right to your worldview just like anybody else, you could come clean with your agenda but I suppose you are not obliged to. If you are not Mechels than you are topologically equivalent to Mechels which still makes a bitter irrational nut case. Tell us, what is the issue, did you get fired, did you fail at trying to be a scientist or engineer, did you want a job at LANL but could not get it, do you just hate people who try to accomplish something with their lives. What is it, what drives that black all consuming hate?
5:22 PM you are just plain delusional to believe most of that stuff.
Crazy person;
You claimed I couldn't find a single person at LANL who thinks that UC is leading LANL. Faced with the OVERWHELMING numbers of UC managers that are, in fact, leading LANL, and everybody knows those numbers, the only rational conclusion we can come to is that YOU are the ONLY person who can't grasp that UC is in charge and has ALWAYS been in charge.
You had NO possible response to the OVERWHELMING numbers of UC managers so what do you do? You do what all crazy people do, you start flinging your own shit like a gorilla.
Listen up you nutcase liar, you have dug a huge hole for yourself by telling all those lies. The hole is so deep, the shit you're flinging is raining back down upon yourself and the more you try to climb out by standing on your own shit, the more you're sinking in. The sad part is that YOU are the only person who doesn't realize that the shit you are flinging is only sticking to yourself.
YOU STINK.
GIVE IT UP, NUTCASE. NOBODY BELIEVES A WORD YOU WRITE.
Some ask 'why is UC putting in a bid if they are not going to win?'
Those are likely the same people that ask 'why is Perry running for President, when he has no chance to win?'
UC, and all the rest of the possible bidders, each is self-convinced that they WILL win. Just as self-convinced as Perry was that he would win. Prediction is that Perry had a better chance of being elected president than UC has of winning the LANL contract.
It's Walp and Doran, not "Dorn". LANL terminated Walp and Doran, they sued LANL and they won BIG. Walp got almost a million dollars from LANL. You know what? LANL, led by UC, publically admitted that they wrongfully terminated Walp and Doran.
Oh God, have you ever met these clowns? Not a pretty picture at all. Walp is by far the greater POS. A 900k dollars is chump change after the lawyers are done and well...well worth it to fire these guys. You know something really crazy, Walp brags about having a Phd. Do you know where that Phd is from? It is from the Ivy league school called Walden University!!!! So you guess where that little money he got from the lawsuit was wasted on Walden. I am not kidding about this, and idiot actually puts this Phd on his credentials! I will not go into details about Walden University as you can guess but suffice to say it actually has an entry on the Urban Dictionary. So no matter what you say firing Walp and Dorn was a GREAT accomplishment for UC and something they should be very proud of and was a service to the nation and humanity in general. As they say in the Marines OohRah!!!!
You have the trio of slime with with Walp, Dorn and Montano! Did you know these guys are still going on about Richard Burick, again I am not kidding, see for yourself
https://www.abqjournal.com/716428/whistleblowers-ask-u-s-attorney-for-new-probe-of-lanl-fraud-former-lab-officials-death.html I guess anything to try to stay relevant or get a buck, these guys are really effing sick people trying make money off dead people. I will give Walp and Dorn this, they certainly have more dignity, pride, and credibility than Montano but that is not saying much.
A few online tidbits about Walden, which is ironic considering what Walden is.
Walden Universitycollege
One of those diploma mill schools that sends out junk mail to try to trick you into thinking that it is a real college.
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Walden%20University
One of those diploma mill schools that sends out junk mail to try to trick you into thinking that it is a real college.
In reality, they are a real school like a cubic zirconia is a real diamond. They are to colleges like Showgirls is to fine cinema. If they were a food product, they would be a frozen TV dinner. Attending Walden University is like telling the world that your local community college was alright, but you just didn't feel like studying that hard.
The only way that you could possibly go lower than Walden University is if you didn't go at all.
A marketing company masquerading as a school. Anytime anyone says anything bad about them online a bunch of fake people, who all sound exactly the same, show up to defend it.
The school is the bottom of the barrel of accredited colleges. It is the community college of online schools. The only reason to go to Walden University is because you can't get in anywhere else.
One of the oldest diploma mills. Walden University = the degree is not worth the paper it is written on. Walden University = you won't get a job as a result of your education.
An online diploma mill masquerading as a school. They started as small non-accredited college selling degrees through the mail and have since graduating to sending people spam messages about their graduate programs. Everyone who applies will be accepted as they don’t require a GRE, SAT, or a pulse. If you can pay, you can get yourself a Walden education.
Their professors are all part-time employees who are usually employed at other colleges at teach at Walden for the extra money. All of their classes are canned and don’t really require any real learning. Just write papers and do the minimum and you’ll have a worthless degree in no time at all.
The people who run the small office in Minneapolis, MN change regularly and are usually unhappy with their lives. The school goes through deans and heads of departments so quickly that even the staff jokes about it
Some ask 'why is UC putting in a bid if they are not going to win?'
Those are likely the same people that ask 'why is Perry running for President, when he has no chance to win?'
UC, and all the rest of the possible bidders, each is self-convinced that they WILL win. Just as self-convinced as Perry was that he would win. Prediction is that Perry had a better chance of being elected president than UC has of winning the LANL contract.
August 28, 2017 at 7:51 PM
UC is going to win because the universe just is that way sometime. Ask your self this how many times has something gone really wrong for you and think that the Universe must be against you? Be honest it has happened a lot for you, and this case will be no exception. Some call it Karma, justice or whatever, it is actually far far simpler than that. Here is a hint, people who blame others for their own problems often think the world is out to get them, now think about this for some time and maybe just maybe it will dawn on you why your life turned out the way it has. Of course you will not get this and when UC wins you will once again blame
the universe.
UC is going to win because the universe just is that way sometime. Ask your self this how many times has something gone really wrong for you and think that the Universe must be against you? Be honest it has happened a lot for you, and this case will be no exception. Some call it Karma, justice or whatever, it is actually far far simpler than that. Here is a hint, people who blame others for their own problems often think the world is out to get them, now think about this for some time and maybe just maybe it will dawn on you why your life turned out the way it has. Of course you will not get this and when UC wins you will once again blame
the universe.
August 28, 2017 at 8:13 PM
And if UC wins with another partner, you will blame the partner for the future failures because you are delusional...
And if UC wins with another partner, you will blame the partner for the future failures because you are delusional...
August 28, 2017 at 11:14 PM
If UC wins with the right partner it could be very successful. Again UC managed LLNL and LANL well for 60 years just in case you forgot.
Too long and too insane. Didn't read.
UC most certainly did not manage LANL well for 60 years, that's a flat lie.
Nanos. Nothing more needs to be said.
UC most certainly did not manage LANL well for 60 years, that's a flat lie.
Nanos. Nothing more needs to be said.
August 29, 2017 at 9:12 AM
UC did manage LLNL and LANL very well for 60 years. They also got rid Nanos, oh ya and fired Walpe or Dorn. Looks like a strong record ;)
UC did manage LLNL and LANL very well for 60 years.
August 29, 2017 at 7:13 PM
Agree that UC did ok with LLNL for 60 years.
Sorry, facts are against you, but it was only 50 years for LANL.
The last 10 years at LANL under UC were not well managed. In fact, the first 5 years of LANS were well managed and it was the last 5 years of LANS that were a complete disaster.
In fact, the first 5 years of LANS were well managed and it was the last 5 years of LANS that were a complete disaster.
The first five years!!!!??? You are out of your mind. It only proves that you have no idea what has been happening at LANL or LLNL. In case you forgot at LLNL they laid off hundreds of people after Bechtel came in, yes in the first five years At LANL they had to have two voluntary separations initiatives all due to the "for profit" model, again in the first five years. LANLS aka Bechtel has been a huge disaster. UC did great with LANL and LLNL for 60 years during the cold war when things where taken seriously. Your hatred of UC is person very very personal. By chance did you get fired during the UC years? Just saying but its kind obvious that you have a an axe to grind. Come on tell us what happened to you to turn you into such a crazed hater you are. Heck you may even have a point but you have to tell us.
8:04 PM needs to take a chill pill. Wow! Not sure that there was a good reason to transition LLNL from UC, but LLNL did send Anastasio and crew to LANL. Under him the lab did function and to some extent thrive. It was only when Mcmillan came in that the wheels came off the truck.
"but LLNL did send Anastasio and crew to LANL. Under him the lab did function and to some extent thrive"
No not even close. Why did we have to go through that VSP twice?. I will concede that Anastasio was way better than McMillan. Anasatasio has also been very vocal about how the labs have been in decline.
Why did we have to go through that VSP twice?
August 29, 2017 at 8:36 PM
Because the entire complex has been shrinking since the 90s (60% reduction) and the economic reality came to LANL finally although still not in any real sense (a few percent at best). Many that took the VSP just waited, turned around, and hired again under TCP2.
There is little reason in 2017 to justify LANL at 12,000 employees. Maybe at 6,000 or less, but that is being generous considering the mission need. The NNSA knows this and has already planted the reasons for a major size reduction in the solicitation for the new M&O.
There is little reason in 2017 to justify LANL at 12,000 employees. Maybe at 6,000 or less, but that is being generous considering the mission need. The NNSA knows this and has already planted the reasons for a major size reduction in the solicitation for the new M&O.
August 31, 2017 at 5:31 AM
Interesting view in light of Mcmillian going on about hiring like crazy lately. It is odd since these new hires do no appear to be technical staff. There does seem to be lots of new people around but nobody even knows which divisions they work in. This whole thing is very odd. Why would they be hiring all these people? Presumably there is some profit involved or it is some kind of poison pill like "LANS is leaving so lets completely mess up before we go".
Interesting view in light of Mcmillian going on about hiring like crazy lately. It is odd since these new hires do no appear to be technical staff. There does seem to be lots of new people around but nobody even knows which divisions they work in. This whole thing is very odd. Why would they be hiring all these people? Presumably there is some profit involved or it is some kind of poison pill like "LANS is leaving so lets completely mess up before we go".
August 31, 2017 at 6:58 AM
The hires are across the board but generally it is because people are leaving and the money keeps flowing... The lab will under-spend its budget this year by a significant amount.
The hires are across the board but generally it is because people are leaving and the money keeps flowing... The lab will under-spend its budget this year by a significant amount.
August 31, 2017 at 5:44 PM
May be more of an indication that the budget is too high vice that the headcount is too low.
The hires are across the board but generally it is because people are leaving and the money keeps flowing... The lab will under-spend its budget this year by a significant amount.
August 31, 2017 at 5:44 PM
The rumor I hears is the Bechtel was able to siphon off money in the past but after WIPP it can no longer do this so that is why we have extra money.
Are the new hires really LANL employees or is he counting contract employees as part of the headcount? Sounds like Trump math to me.
Sounds like your biases are blatantly evident.
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