By Susan Follett
FORT BELVOIR, Va. (Aug. 31, 2017)—When it comes to recognizing top talent, football has the Pro Bowl, baseball the All Star Game and Hollywood the Oscars. The Army contracting world has the Secretary of the Army Awards for Excellence in Contracting (SAAEC). Presented annually since 1997, the awards recognize exemplary organizations and individuals—those who excel in customer satisfaction, productivity, process improvement and quality enhancement.
Nominations are being accepted for this year’s awards and must be submitted by Sept. 19. Winners will be announced later this fall. Nominees must have made contributions between May 1, 2016, and June 30, 2017. All Army service component commands, direct reporting units, program executive offices (PEOs) and HQDA are encouraged to nominate eligible contracting officers, other contracting workforce members and units or teams.
Awards will be given in several categories, including:
- Five special award categories: the Barbara C. Heald (Deployed Civilian) Award; the Exceptional Support of the Ability One Program Award; the Outstanding Contract Specialist/Procurement Analyst Award; the Contracting Professional of the Year Award; and the Contracting Noncommissioned Officer of the Year Award.
- And eight awards—four for an outstanding individual and four for an outstanding unit or team—will be given in these categories: the Installation Level Contracting Office and/or Directorate of Contracting Award; the Systems, R&D, Logistics Support (Sustainment) Contracting Award; the Specialized Services and Construction Contracting Award; and the Contingency Contracting Award.
Each nomination must be endorsed by the PEO, principal assistant responsible for contracting or other appropriate senior official. Completed nomination packets must be submitted to the U.S. Army Acquisition Support Center through the web-based call for nominations application at https://asc.army.mil/web/contracting-awards/. Detailed instructions for the SAAEC Awards—including samples of winning narratives from previous years—also can be found at that site.
Questions should be addressed to the awards coordinator, Yves B. Jackson, at 703-697-1075 or yves.b.jackson.civ@mail.mil. Technical questions regarding application submissions to the award website should be addressed to Vicky DeGuzman at 703-664-5633 or victoria.l.deguzman.civ@mail.mil.
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