USAEC in conjunction with the Mission and Installation Contracting Command Fort Sam Houston (MICC-FSH) has several multiple award task order contracts that may be used to address garrison environmental requirements.

In the past 15 years, Legislative and Executive Branch actions have reformed the laws and policies that govern federal acquisition. All of these laws emphasized the need to focus contracting on results rather than on the process, sending an important message about performance in federal programs and acquisitions. As a result, Performance-Based Acquisition (PBA) initiatives were developed at many federal agencies to meet the requirements of these reforms.

The Army’s default position for acquiring environmental cleanup services is to use PBA unless there is a strong justification for using another acquisition approach. The belief is the use of PBA will significantly improve overall project performance and expedite environmental cleanup. The Army’s approach is based on several years of successful PBA implementation, where PBA has been demonstrated to improve cost, quality, and schedule performance without compromising cleanups that are protective of human health and the environment. Use of PBA can:

• Lower cost growth
• Accelerate cleanup
• Reduce contract reporting and oversight
• Be aligned to exit strategies or encourage system optimization
• Lower remediation costs
• Encourage the use of innovative approaches

PBA is a contracting approach in which contractor performance is judged against the desired outcome rather than the level of effort performed. The Army PBA initiative is designed to ensure:

• Contractors are provided flexibility to determine and implement the best approach to meet the Government’s performance objectives;
• Appropriate performance quality levels are achieved; and
• Payments are made to contractors only for services that meet the agreed upon levels of quality and performance stated on the contract.

The PBA approach is used in the environmental cleanup contracting arena to promote innovative cleanup technologies and strategies that expedite completion of the environmental cleanup actions. Through PBA, remediation firms are allowed the flexibility to conduct cost effective environmental cleanups in a technically sound approach of their design, while ensuring the agreed upon milestones and regulatory requirements are achieved. PBA provides financial incentives for contractors specializing in environmental remediation services to develop and implement an expedited and efficient approach to achieve environmental cleanup goals. PBA also provides contractors flexibility in exercising approaches that are more cost effective to both the contractor and the Government.

Go to our Frequently Asked Questions page for more information about contracting.