Department Of Energy
Integrated Contractor Procurment Team
National Contract Specifications For Bioassay And Radiochemistry Laboratory
Analysis
Virgene
Ideker, Division Manager
Analytical
Services Division
Kaiser-Hill,
LLC
The Department of Energy empowered its contractors to
develop an agreement for laboratory services which, by aggressively pursuing
consortium buying, would reduce cost and improve data quality. This effort was
the first of its kind to encourage cooperation among DOE sites for the
establishment of a national service contract. The National Contract for
Analytical Services was completed in partnership with the American Council of
Independent Laboratories.
The National Contract for Analytical Services is the
contractual document which supports a national consolidated audit program. It requires a standard data deliverable,
standard data quality requirements, and standardizes the method that the DOE
complex uses for requesting analysis.
In addition, the document establishes criterion for radiochemical
analysis for the DOE.
As a result of an Inspector General Audit of the
Bioassay Program at several DOE sites, an addendum to the current ICPT
agreement is being added to include specifications for bioassay analysis.
Scheduled completion of the addendum is January 2001.
Standardization of data deliverables increases
productivity and capacity in the analytical laboratory, enables government
entities to obtain legally defensible analytical data in a timely manner, and
offers opportunities for other commercial vendors to develop standard systems
for data management of all analytical data.
Customers will receive comparable quality data for making important
regulatory decisions.
One of the biggest accomplishments of this effort, next to the cost savings, was the establishment of a cooperative - teamwork atmosphere between all DOE sites, other federal agencies and the commercial laboratories. This cooperation has not existed previously. As a result, efforts are now being made to undertake other national service contracts.