Daniel P. Elkins, Mission and Installation Contracting Command Public Affairs Office
JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas — Mission and Installation Contracting Command officials realigned six field directorate offices into four Dec. 4 in a strategic effort to bring consistency to its operations and improve contract administration and oversight.
The four field directorate offices will be located at Fort Bragg, N.C., Fort Eustis, Va., Fort Hood, Texas, and Fort Knox, Ky.
Of the two other field directorates, MICC-Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington was realigned under Fort Bragg, and MICC-Fort Sam Houston is serving as the headquarters’ activity responsible for acquisitions not normally provided by other MICC elements as well as specialized contracting assignments for the MICC leadership. The command’s remaining 34 subordinate contracting offices located throughout the country and Puerto Rico will be administratively and operationally realigned under the four directorates.
“The MICC continues to mature its oversight and responsive capabilities to meet the growing demands of our Soldiers and the acquisition community,” said Brig. Gen. Kirk Vollmecke, the MICC commanding general. “The realignment of contracting offices under field directorate offices restores a command-wide focus that supports our core mission of providing responsive contracting solutions and oversight for our customers.”
Analysis for the organizational realignment began in mid-2012 and included an assessment of the command’s operational efficiency to determine a structure that would improve contract compliance and oversight of operations, provide strategic support to customers, and effectively utilize existing resources.
Sarah Corley, a senior contracting professional in the MICC who helped lead the realignment integrated process team, said the selection of locations for field directorate offices came after thorough mission analysis and was based on their link with the command’s major customer groups.
“The realignment provides a more strategic alignment with the customer base, in order to provide optimum opportunity for standardization of processes and products,” Corley said. “The realignment strikes a core balance between horizontal and vertical spans of control, leverages the strengths of pre-existing organizational components, enhances the ability to streamline and standardize MICC’s processes, achieves consistency of operations, enhances support to core customers, and provides a mechanism to measure results.”
MICC officials met with field directors and their deputies here in October to conduct roundtable discussions on realignment that included procurement authorities and roles and responsibilities for the four field directorate offices to support their customers.
The MICC’s major customers include the U.S. Army Forces Command and Reserve Command supported by MICC FDO-Fort Bragg; U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command supported by MICC FDO-Fort Eustis; U.S. Army Test and Evaluation Command supported by MICC FDO-Fort Hood; and Department of the Army-level customers in the Military District of Washington supported by MICC FDO-Fort Knox.
At the same time, the MICC is transferring Fort Wainwright, Alaska, Fort Dix, N.J., and Miami to other areas of the U.S. Army Contracting Command. California’s MICC-Moffett Field will assume oversight of contracting support actions at Fort Hunter Liggett, Calif.
For the most part, the realignment should be transparent at the installation contracting officer and customer levels, according to Albert Jacob, the chief of MICC Contract Operations. He added that in the transition, some MICC offices reporting to a different field directorate office should coordinate with the staff at MICC Contract Operations to ensure proper visibility and compliance with acquisition and contracting procedures.
The MICC is responsible for providing contracting support for the warfighter across Army commands, installations and activities located throughout the continental United States and Puerto Rico. In fiscal 2012, the command executed more than 58,000 contract actions worth more than $6.3 billion across the Army, including more than $2.6 billion to small businesses. The command also managed more than 1.2 million Government Purchase Card Program transactions valued at an additional $1.3 billion.
