By Michael Bold
FORT BELVOIR, Va. (Oct. 2, 2019)—The Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army for Procurement is seeking nominations for the 2019 Secretary of the Army Awards for Excellence in Contracting. Presented annually since 1997, the awards recognize exemplary organizations and individuals whose accomplishments and abilities elevate them above the best in the field across the Army.
This year’s awards include a new category: Innovation in Contracting Strategies. This award will recognize excellence in developing unique and innovative strategies for delivering world-class capabilities to our warfighters. The award will highlight demonstrated, exceptional outside-the-box thinking in tackling contracting challenges.
Nominations for all awards must be submitted by Oct. 21, and nominees must have made contributions between Oct. 1, 2018, and Sept. 30, 2019. Winners will be announced later this fall. 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. Full instructions for submitting the nominations can be found at https://asc.army.mil/web/contracting-awards/.
In addition to the new Innovation in Contracting Strategies Award, awards will be given in five other 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.
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.
