CLOSING OUT AFGHANISTAN
TRANSFER OF RESPONSIBILITY
ACC-A officially deactivates as a unit and the colors are cased before deploying home on March 10 at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar. ACC-A was deactivated after a successful mission handover to the 408th Contracting Support Brigade.
in other countries and provided a list of countries with banking institutions that would work with Afghanistan registered businesses.
Contracting Command, which reduced this workload down to 1,000 contracts. Tis closeout script assisted greatly, but there needed to be a tracking mechanism for the remaining 1,000 contracts.
We developed a master contract tracker that provided status by category for each contract action. Tis tracker provided the dollar amount of the contract, past payments made by finance, and updates on where the contract was in the close- out process. Tis document was shared with all relevant key stakeholders to show the progression of the mission and quickly identify friction points. As the mission matured, it was identified that some actions would not be properly closed with the vendor being paid in full. Tis situa- tion was a result of the contractor being unresponsive or that the contractor filed a claim with the Armed Services Board of Contract Appeals (ASBCA). Te ASBCA
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claims process is lengthy and causes a long litigation period to be fully adjudicated. Te contract tracker not only kept an ongoing common operating picture, but it also served as an archive for incoming contracting officers.
Te second problem was currency conver- sion. Following Afghanistan’s collapse, the U.S. Treasury placed the Taliban on the Office of Foreign Assets Control Sanc- tion List, making it impossible to pay Afghan contractors in their local currency, Afghanis, via electronic fund transfer. Tis change meant that we could no longer pay local vendors in their local currency and these vendors would have to establish bank accounts outside of Afghanistan to receive contract payments. Many vendors faced obstacles, as foreign banks were resistant to setting up accounts for Afghan businesses. We streamlined this process by creating a tutorial on setting up bank accounts
Te third problem was the communication between finance, resource management and the contracting office. Geographic separation between finance, located in the United States, and the contracting office initially caused confusion and delays that prevented vendors being paid. We stood up the fiscal triad, which included legal, contracting and resource management, to work through these issues. Weekly meetings with the finance office led to resolution of ongoing payment issues and provided instructions to the vendors to ensure timely payment. Once this coor- dination and communication occurred, there were far fewer payment issues and contracts were rapidly closed.
Te fourth problem that we faced was the enduring workload. As the mission evolved, it became clear that we would not be able to close all of the enduring workload because of its complexity or the possibility of a future claim. Te addi- tion of an enduring tracker to the master tracker detailed all contract actions that would require future work from the gain- ing contracting unit. Te contract tracker not only kept an ongoing common oper- ating picture, but it again served as an archive for incoming contracting officers.
“Te novel challenges we faced made this an exciting mission, with a fast pace. We
Army AL&T Magazine Winter 2023
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