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Pearl staff gets chance
to bid on refueling job

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By Gregg K. Kakesako
Star-Bulletin

Navy Secretary Richard Danzig has reversed a decision to award a refueling contract at Pearl Harbor to a Texas company.

Danzig's decision was announced yesterday by Rep. Neil Abercrombie. The decision gives 45 workers at Pearl Harbor's Defense Fuel Supply Point, who formed an in-house group to bid for the two-year contract, a chance to submit a new bid since the Navy wants to redo the contract procedure.

Last year, Trajen Inc. submitted a bid for $12.7 million and won the two-year right to take over the refueling job because federal rules require the military to hire private contractors if they prove they can do the job for less money.

But Trajen's bid was rejected by the Navy. Trajen appealed and won a decision from the General Accounting Office in March.

In April, Abercrombie wrote to Danzig saying the GAO's recommendations were flawed since its calculations were wrong. He also wrote to the U.S. Labor Department, which discovered that the wage rates were too low and undermined the justification of turning to a private contractor.