DOE's Assignment of Operating and Testing Responsibilities for OTEC-1

GAO examined several contractual procedures used by the Department of Energy (DOE) in assigning operating and testing responsibilities for its ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) test facility called, OTEC-1. These responsibilities were assigned to the Energy Technology Engineering Center, which is government-owned and contractor-operated. The examination was conducted in response to questions raised in a protest filed with GAO. The questions centered on the agency's ability to assign the contracting responsibility for an operating and testing contract to a government-owned and contractor-operated facility. Specifically, the protest questioned: (1) whether the assignment was prohibited by the private contractor's operating agreement; (2) why the assignment was made without competition or justification; and (3) whether the assignment was in violation of DOE conflict-of-interest regulations.