Intercontractor Procurement Team Workshop

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.