Army Contracting Command offers new training to get civilians and Soldiers up to speed on contract administration.
by Stephanie Brown
Reviews, audits and investigations tied to DOD contracts have identified a need for improved and increased focus on contract administration and oversight. Because of years of focusing on contract awards and obligation rates, and a reliance on external agencies for contract administration, Army Contracting Command (ACC) has not fully exploited its ability to add value to Army readiness through effective contract administration.
Proper contract administration and oversight decrease cost and operational risk as well as ensure that the government gets what it’s paying for under its service and supply contracts. To address these areas for improvement, the Contract Administration Training Center (CATC) was established in 2021 at Army Contracting Command ‒ Rock Island (ACC-RI). The CATC mission is to train civilians and Soldiers in contract administration, specifically in the acquisition functional areas of contracting, government quality assurance and government property administration.
Before the establishment of the CATC, Contract Administration Services (CAS) training was executed as Contingency Contract Administration Services (CCAS) and served primarily as a pre-deployment training. CCAS was a two-week training that was all classroom and practical exercise based. Additionally, the trainees were not exposed fully to all three functional areas: contracting, quality assurance, and government property, during the classroom instruction. CATC’s redevelopment of this training and some of the objectives of the three-pronged approach includes increased engagement, cross-training of all three acquisition functional areas and information retention. This is done by instructing the whole on all three acquisition functional areas, incorporating the use of current, active contracts and task orders, as well as executing real-world events such as on-site quality assurance surveillances and property management system analyses.
The CATC aims to add value to Army readiness through effective contract administration, train personnel in methods for holding contractors accountable, obtain value for the warfighter and raise proficiency levels in contract administration for acquisition professionals.
PUTTING INTO PRACTICE: The map details the installations or locations that Contract Administration Training Center instructors have traveled to execute the hands-on portion and execution phase of training. Note: Fort Johnson, LA was formerly Fort Polk, and Fort Liberty, NC was formerly Fort Bragg. (Graphic courtesy of Contract Administration Training Center)
At ACC-RI, in the center’s Power Projection and Base Readiness (PP&BR) Directorate, which handles the large, complex and highly visible Logistics Civil Augmentation Program and Enhanced Army Global Logistics Enterprise (EAGLE) program, the training has been a game changer, according to Amber Caulkins, PP&BR director.
“CATC has spotlighted areas of improvement, highlighted what is right in terms of contract administration, and has set the stage for success for many of the contracts being administered thus far out of my directorate,” said Caulkins. “Often we focus on the immediate need of the contract award, but it’s time to shift our mindset and focus on what proper contract administration can do for us, and that is exactly what CATC brings to the table.”
Katie Olson, EAGLE branch chief, said the training events have opened doors for active communication and listening among teams and fostered an environment between active-duty members and civilians to build cohesiveness and comradery.
“We have seen a change in the program oversight and engagements to ensure our contractors are performing to their requirements,” Olson said. “If areas of concern do arise, our teams are able to communicate and properly document areas for improvement and how to monitor performance going forward. Ultimately, the CATC training is a great tool to improve our ability to build and empower individuals to be part of the team.”
In addition to the enhancements to ACC-RI contract administration and the ACC enterprise as a whole, supported units and customers benefit through improved readiness as well as gaining a better understanding of how their contractors are executing their contract requirements. The key customers and supported units are ACC itself, Army field support brigades and battalions throughout the continental United States and outside the continental United States contracting support brigades.
During its first year in place, the CATC team provided 13 course offerings to over 400 personnel. This included multiple two-week, in-person course offerings, virtual through Microsoft Teams, and most recently through the execution of mobile training teams.
INFORMATIVE IN-BRIEF: Students providing an in-brief to the Army Field Support Battalion-Bragg commander, his staff and the EAGLE performance contractor, December 13, 2022. (Photo by Stephanie Brown, ACC-RI)
A THREE-PRONGED, IMMERSIVE APPROACH
The importance of this training cannot be understated. As Col. Lynda Armer, ACC-RI military deputy director, explained, the Federal Acquisition Regulation requires that contracting officers perform property administration and ensure compliance with contractual quality and safety requirements on their service contracts.
“Ultimately, acquisition professionals complete the course with the skills to hold contractors accountable to perform in accordance with the terms of the contract, producing overall savings and improved readiness for the Army,” Armer said.
The team provides training in the acquisition functional areas of contracting, quality and property that cover contract administration overviews; roles and responsibilities; contract receipt and review; nonconformance reports; the contract performance tracking tool; property management system analysis outcomes; and government property accountability procedures. This instruction includes classroom briefings, systems walk-throughs and hands-on training.
To prepare trainees for this, the CATC takes a three-pronged, immersive training approach in which trainees are engaged in an active ACC-RI contract. In the first phase, trainees complete foundational modules online as a prerequisite to the on-site course. These modules were developed by ACC and are hosted on the Defense Acquisition University portal.
In the second phase, trainees spend one week in the classroom with focused training on the essentials they need to perform contract administration. This includes functional training from specialized instructors and mission-specific training of the contract led by the procuring contracting officer (PCO), culminating in a PCO delegation of contract administration to the class. The class prepares trainees for contract administration through in-depth reviews of the contract documents and contractor procedures. The trainees also develop quality and property surveillance checklists and complete a contract receipt and review.
Following the foundational and focused training, trainees spend one week on-site at the place of performance, leading administration of their delegated contract. This consists of the class conducting in-briefs and out-briefs with the requirement’s owner and contractor as well as working one on one with the contracting officer’s representatives (CORs).
WRAPPING THINGS UP: Contract Administration Training Center Contract Administration Services student Maj. Oscar Delgado provides a command team out brief at Fort Polk, April 22, 2022. (Photo by Stephanie Brown, ACC-RI)
“Trainees are delegated administration on an active, large, complex service contract,” said Armer. “The hands-on approach to learning leaves trainees with the knowledge and confidence to conduct contract administration of any service contract.”
This process evolves into the trainees becoming de facto trainers to the on-site CORs, conducting surveillance of both quality and property processes and, when available, conducting a property damage or loss investigation. The week concludes with the trainees providing performance feedback to the requirement’s owner and the contractor. The out-brief includes recommendations to the requirement’s owner to obtain the right outputs at the right cost and identifies areas of success and improvement (as applicable) tied to contractor performance.
Maj. Oscar Delgadoveana, a contracting specialist with the Mission and Installation Contracting Command at Fort Campbell, Kentucky, who took the training in April 2022 with a focus on Fort Polk’s EAGLE contract, said it not only prepared him to assume duties as an administrative contracting officer, but it also provided him with a deeper understanding and appreciation for quality assurance and property administration.
“As a student that relies heavily on real-world application to retain information, I found the course curriculum to be phenomenally structured,” Delgadoveana said. “The practical exercises and hands-on portion of the class helped me gauge my understanding of the material by allowing me to apply the new skill set on Fort Polk’s EAGLE contract.”
CAS CLASS, GERMANY: Class picture for the July 2022 Contract Administration Services course offering at Sembach, Germany. (Photo by Stephanie Brown, ACC-RI)
Maj. Neidas Cezar, EAGLE program procuring contracting officer, who took the CAS training in September 2021 at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, has assisted the CATC staff three times for the on-site (at the contract place of performance) portion of the course. Incorporating a PCO, who also participated as a trainee, has been value added to the program of instruction. Specifically, he has been able to assist in mentoring, advising and leading the trainees throughout the two weeks of instruction, as well as assisting the instructors in providing context and real-life examples during the classroom portion. This has also served as an opportunity for him to actively oversee some of the contracts he is responsible for administering.
“As a CATC alum, I’ve learned all of the contract and regulatory limitations, processes, as well as required documentation for surveillances and execution of performance feedback or nonconformance reports,” Cezar said. “I now get the opportunity to augment CATC by reinforcing the information I learned in training, as well as providing my firsthand knowledge of the EAGLE program.”
Overall, this training approach quickly builds trainees’ confidence and skills so they can immediately apply robust administration on all of their contracts. Trainees recognize the importance and applicability of the training to the tasks being performed, adding much value to the acquisition professionals deploying to varying sites.
CAS CLASS, ACC-RI: Class picture for the September 2021 Contract Administration Services course offering at Army Contracting Command ‒ Rock Island. (Photo by Liz Glenn, ACC-RI, Public Affairs)
CATC has a full schedule for the remainder of fiscal year 2022 and has begun developing its fiscal year 2023 schedule. For more information regarding CATC, contact usarmy.ria.acc.list.contract-admin-training-center@army.mil.
STEPHANIE BROWN is the branch chief for the Contract Administration Training Center at U.S. Army Contracting Command – Rock Island (ACC-RI). Before her current role, she served as a procuring contracting officer (contract specialist prior to that) for the Power Projection and Base Readiness Directorate at ACC-RI for over a decade, supporting complex service contracts within the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. She holds a B.A. in marketing from Western Illinois University, and she is a DAWIA certified DOD Contracting Professional.
