RCO-S, responsible for three locations supporting nearly 8,000 Soldiers, Air- men, Sailors, Marines and civilians, consisted of me, my noncommissioned officer in charge, a civilian administra- tive contracting officer (ACO) and three quality assurance representatives (QARs). Te three locations were reachable only by helicopter and required significant planning and coordination to schedule visits. To support the contingency contract administration services mission, I and one civilian held ACO warrants that gave us authority to direct the LOGCAP contrac- tor. All RCO-S personnel were located at Kandahar Airfield, save one QAR who lived at one of our outlying bases.
RCO-S has been supporting contract- ing operations in southern Afghanistan for more than a decade, and it has seen its personnel turn over every six to 12 months. My assessment of its operation when I arrived was overwhelmingly posi- tive, but one of my intentions was to leave it better than I found it. Our day-to-day challenge was to apply the commander’s intent to accomplish our contracting mis- sion. Managing a life-support contract serving so many people across
such a
large footprint is complex, to say the least. Doing so with simple guidance was fun- damental to our success.
OVERSIGHT LEFT OF BANG Tis axiom means, essentially, to identify and mitigate issues or risks before they became problems, i.e., be proactive versus reactive. We accomplished this through relentless oversight of the contractor.
Te performance work statement (PWS) for the LOGCAP contract in the south contained 75 “lines,” or services to be performed. For example, one line was waste management. Te contractor was expected to execute that service in a particular way, on a particular schedule,
using particular manuals and instruc- tions, all detailed in the PWS. Tis
“parent” service encompassed “child” services: emptying dumpsters, servicing portable toilets, operating a landfill, etc. Each service was assigned a risk rating of high, medium or low. (See Figure 1.)
Te services with a “high” risk rating were deemed to have the potential to hurt the warfighter’s readiness or even cause actual harm if not executed correctly. For example, food service operations was a high-risk service. Food service must be done correctly, without fail, guaranteeing that the contractor provided patrons with the nutrition they needed, served food properly and maintained a prescribed degree of cleanliness. On the opposite end of the spectrum, morale, welfare and recreation (MWR) services were assigned a low risk. Te warfighter’s readiness was unlikely to suffer if an MWR building did not fully function.
To ensure that the contractor upheld its end of the contract and avoided service disruptions, my QARs conducted peri- odic audits of performance lines. An audit was as simple as an on-the-spot observation or as detailed as reviewing the contractor’s execution of a task. My QARs conducted an average of more than 100 audits each month on most PWS lines for the LOGCAP task order, a significant increase compared with the practices of previous staffs. Our goal was to audit all high- and medium-risk ser- vices each month, including all parent and child services. Tat schedule gave my team frequent opportunities to witness contractor performance and to identify opportunities to mitigate perceived or possible issues.
On several occasions, particularly in dining facilities, my QARs and I made on-the-spot corrections relating to
cleanliness, waste management and food preparation. For instance, we noticed that one of the dining facilities was tem- porarily storing food waste immediately outside the dining facility, violating a reg- ulation that trash was to be kept at least 250 feet from the building at all times. Food waste brings insects, rats and other vermin, all unacceptable visitors in a din- ing facility. A quick discussion with the dining facility manager resolved the issue, which was minor but could have grown into a bigger problem if not addressed.
My office was allotted only three QARs, so we relied heavily on contracting offi- cer’s representatives (CORs) to perform surveillance of the
contractor. QARs
are specially trained on how to read and interpret a PWS and are very familiar with the associated technical manuals the contractor is legally bound to follow. A QAR is also well-versed in the basics of contracting—what is expected of the contractor as well as the government. My QARs kept the pulse of the contractor with regard to performance across the breadth of the LOGCAP contract, but I had only three of them, and they couldn’t be everywhere, all the time. By contrast, 33 CORs were available, on average, throughout our three locations; however, executing their COR duties was often secondary to their primary job.
Te CORs monitored all performance lines and recorded their findings monthly in the COR Tool (CORT). CORT is an online database for collecting the numer- ous COR reports submitted each month, simple digital files answering pertinent questions on contractor performance. Tis database is accessible to the CORs and all contracting officers assigned to a given contract. A monthly requirement for the ACOs at RCO-S was to review these forms to ensure their validity and accuracy and accept them into CORT.
ASC.ARMY.MIL 223
CONTRACTING
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