Feral Jundi

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Industry Talk: Aid Workers’ Security Situation Spurs Talks On Afghan Contractor Ban

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Matt @ 11:17 AM

        What happened to Linda Norgrove was tragic in two ways. First is if she was doing a critical job that put her in harms way, then she should have been given competent security folks who are professionals and capable. And second, the tragedy of her getting kidnapped and the government having to either rescue her or pay a ransom has become a PR nightmare for all involved.

     Of course in this case they felt it necessary to rescue her and that mission was not successful. So what is worse? Using private security or letting your people get kidnapped due to a lack of security? (it reminds me of the piracy debate) Which goes back to what this article is talking about.

     Afghanistan is a far more dangerous place these days and requires ‘true’ security professionals to safely transport crucial civilian specialists from point A to point B. With a shortage of dependable and professional local national security types, as well as a lack of available military escorts, private security contracted through experienced and capable companies are the final and best option in my view.

     Tim Lynch wrote a great post the other day that talked about Linda and the banning of security companies in Afghanistan. It is a good read and be sure to follow his posts as this situation develops.

     We will see how the State Department is able to navigate this one, because if they plan on continuing their missions out there they will need authorization by the Afghan government to continue using their security contractors on the roads. –Matt

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Aid workers’ security situation spurs talks on Afghan contractor ban

October 12, 2010

By Elise Labott

Concerned a ban on security contractors in Afghanistan will curtail the efforts of development workers, the State Department is feverishly negotiating with the Afghan government about a set of conditions that will allow private security details to operate in the country, senior U.S. officials told CNN.

The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the negotiations, said the United States is concerned about a four-month deadline Afghanistan’s president imposed last month to phase out the country’s 52 private security companies by year’s end. If implemented, the move would leave critical aid personnel unprotected and unable to continue their work, a key pillar of the U.S. strategy as it seeks to stabilize Afghanistan.

The U.S. is in intense negotiations with the Afghan interior ministry for a “clarification letter” that would spell out a consistent and uniform set of guidelines by which contractors would be allowed to remain in the country and under what conditions they can operate. The guidelines should be finished within the next week, they said.

(more…)

Monday, June 14, 2010

Industry Talk: DoS Wants To Form A Mini-army For Iraq Security

Filed under: Disaster Response,Industry Talk,Iraq — Tags: , , , , , , , , , — Matt @ 12:57 PM

     Well duh! It all makes sense now.  CNAS comes out with a report on contractors, fully supporting our use and the future use of contractors in our wars, and now DoS wants to form a ‘mini-army’?(well…. they’ve always had a mini-contractor army)

     And the ‘monopoly of force’ argument gets another challenge by none other than…… the US Department of State? Max Weber is rolling in his grave as we speak. lol (I had to stick that one in there…)

     I am also reminded of the scenes of Air America rescuing South Vietnamese and American civilians off of the roof top during the last days of the Vietnam War. That was a contractor air force that did that, and not a military one.  The idea here is that contractors are the filler during the dangerous stages of a draw down or build up of a war.  We can fill those gaps of operational need, and as fast as they come up.  Private industry is flexible enough to do this, and account for the surprises or worse yet, poor planning of the war.

     Even with natural disasters like the BP spill in the gulf, you must have a partnership between private and public forces in order to meet the operational requirements of the disaster.  When the feds run out of a specific resource, or let’s say a disaster has done something completely unexpected, private industry can instantly address the problem. Or in some cases, the federal government can jump in and take over where private industry is faltering.  The key to me is to find some kind of equilibrium within that war or disaster, where we reach the sweet spot of private and public partnership. –Matt

Edit: 6/14/2010- I would like to correct one of the things I mentioned in this post that one of my readers brought to my attention as partially wrong.  During the draw down stage of the Vietnam war, this was largely a military effort. So I want to emphasize that the military did most of the heavy lifting, and Air America ‘assisted’ in that process. Or in other words, it was a team effort, with the military taking the lead. Here is a run down of Operation Frequent Wind, as just one example of that process.

   Also, check this out.  The author of this article changed the title of the thing.  The content is the same.  I will bet that he got some heat for putting together this original title below. The new one says “State Dept Wants Combat Gear For Security In Iraq”.  Just a tad bit less flowery or sensationalistic than the original. lol

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BAE Caiman

This BAE Caiman is what the DoS is requesting for their security force. They want 50. They also want 24 Blackhawk Helicopters.

State wants to form a mini-army for Iraq security

By RICHARD LARDNER

June 14, 2010

WASHINGTON — The State Department is quietly forming a small army to protect diplomatic personnel in Iraq after U.S. military forces leave the country at the end of 2011, taking their firepower with them.

Department officials are asking the Pentagon to provide heavy military gear, including Black Hawk helicopters, and say they will also need substantial support from private contractors.

The shopping list demonstrates the department’s reluctance to count on Iraq’s army and police forces for security despite the billions of dollars the U.S. invested to equip and train them. And it shows that President Barack Obama is having a hard time keeping his pledge to reduce U.S. reliance on contractors, a practice that flourished under the Bush administration.

In an early April request to the Pentagon, Patrick Kennedy, the State Department’s under secretary for management, is seeking 24 Black Hawks, 50 bomb-resistant vehicles, heavy cargo trucks, fuel trailers, and high-tech surveillance systems. Kennedy asks that the equipment, worth hundreds of millions of dollars, be transferred at “no cost” from military stocks.

Contractors will be needed to maintain the gear and provide other support to diplomatic staff, according to the State Department, a potential financial boon for companies such as the Houston-based KBR Inc. that still have a sizable presence in Iraq.

(more…)

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Industry Talk: Audit Hits State Department On Failures To Monitor Iraq Work

Filed under: Industry Talk,Iraq — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 12:50 AM

   Yet again, how come this does not surprise me?  The one part that really stands out about this report, is the fact that they only had one contracting officer to monitor over a billion dollars worth of invoices.  I am no expert on contracting officers, but it would seem to me that using just one guy to monitor all of that, is setting this up for failure. And seeing how this is government, I know there are manuals and studies that discuss the proper way to do this. Even so, commonsense would dictate that maybe, just maybe, State should have put some more folks in that department to help out.

   It gets better though, because then the new kids on the block who are running DoS, have decided that ‘three’ contracting officers is sufficient to monitor these contracts. Oh, and they lack guidance, which is even more indicative of what is really going on. It takes leadership to make this stuff happen, and if you guys placed good leaders in those offices, increased the benefits and pay for the contracting officer positions, insure everyone has good guidance and training for the task, and properly fund the contracting office at State, you might actually get some good accountability out of the whole deal. State must do a better job about overseeing how tax payer’s money is spent.  Anything else is unacceptable.

   By the way, David Isenberg has a good article about this latest report here. –Matt

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Audit hits State on failures to monitor Iraq work

January 25, 2010

By RICHARD LARDNER

WASHINGTON (AP) – For nearly $4.5 million a year, the State Department in June assigned a 16-person security detail to protect six U.S. contractors in Iraq who already had a team of hired guards they didn’t really need.

The expensive miscue is one of many described in an audit issued Monday of a $2.5 billion State Department contract with DynCorp International for training Iraq’s police force.

The department repeatedly failed to oversee the contract properly, according to the audit by the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. The findings also suggest the department remains ill-equipped to watch over the vast amount of U.S. money flowing into Afghanistan.

“I think they need to act quickly to remedy this long-standing concern,” the special inspector general, Stuart Bowen, said about the State Department’s shortage of people and resources to oversee work done by the private sector.

In comments included in the report, Assistant Secretary of State David Johnson disputed the audit’s central conclusion that weak oversight made the $2.5 billion vulnerable to waste and fraud. Johnson said payments are only made to a contractor after the invoices have been carefully checked.

But the report challenges that assertion.

(more…)

Thursday, January 21, 2010

Industry Talk: Xe Gets A Good Grade In Audit By DoS Inspector General’s Office

Filed under: Afghanistan,Industry Talk — Tags: , , , , , — Matt @ 8:06 AM

   Bravo to Xe and to all the hard working contractors out in the field that made this happen. It’s all about customer service and satisfaction, and applying Kaizen to all of your operations. If anything, the main things that the report hit on, was that the Bureau of Diplomatic Security just needs to continue insuring the company is being honest and providing a good service.  That to me shows that State wants to implement more quality control features into the process and they care about the services.  That is good.

    Like with building homes, you need to watch what the contractors are doing during the build process, and insure it is the product and service you asked for and paid for. That’s if you care about how your money was spent, or the quality of your home. It also let’s the contractors know that you actually care and are watching what they are doing.

   This isn’t rocket science, and this is purely a matter of demanding a quality product or service because you want the best value for the money spent. Government should be totally focused on that, because in this case, the service given, impacts DoS and the population’s lives in a war zone, the reputation and prominence of the DoS and US mission in Afghanistan, and the tax payer’s wallet. –Matt

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“In 2008, USTC conducted 2,730 personal protection missions in support of staff from the Department of State, including the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, USAID, and various Congressional delegations (see Table). In 2008, 257 (9.4 percent) of the missions were performed for USAID. During the entire time USTC has operated in Afghanistan, no one under USTC’s protection has been injured or killed, and there have been no incidents involving the use of deadly force. OIG observed personal protection missions and interviewed various representatives from the Department of State and USAID who regularly use USTC’s personal protective services. The representatives reported that USTC employees are professional, make them feel secure, and are respectful to both officials under chief of mission authority and their Afghan counterparts.”- Inspector General’s Office of DoS, recent performance audit for protective services for August 2009.

And………

  “I would like to pay special tribute to the brave and hard working personnel, RSOs and ARSOs, who have protected me and my missions in dangerous times. I would also like to acknowledge my respect for the men of DynCorp and Blackwater who ran my personal protection details in Iraq and Afghanistan. They performed with courage, judgment and restraint and one lost his leg in the process. Whatever opprobrium now attaches to others I owe all those gallant men—State Department and contractor employees–my gratitude and I am glad to have a public forum in which to express it.”-Ambassador Ronald E. Neumann, the former Ambassador to Afghanistan (2005-2007) had this to say at a congressional hearing.

Monday, December 14, 2009

Legal News: Omnibus Bill FY 2010–Embassy and Worldwide Security Protection Stuff

Filed under: Afghanistan,Government Work,Iraq,Legal News — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Matt @ 12:56 AM

     I found this over at Diplopundit, which is a great blog that tracks this stuff.  They basically broke down the bill as to the budget amounts and any new amendments.  I especially clued into the latest budgetary figures, increases in new security positions, and the latest ‘best value’ contracting mechanism that State has. They even mention the Kabul Fiasco specifically, as a reason for the amendment.  Check it out. –Matt

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From Diplopundit:

Worldwide Security Protection

The conference agreement provides $1,586,214,000 for Worldwide Security Protection, which is $8,787,000 above the House and $8,786,000 below the Senate. The conferees note that $13,375,000 requested for fiscal year 2010 was included in the Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2009 (Public Law 111-32), bringing the total available for Worldwide Security Protection in fiscal year 2010 to $1,599,589,000. Within the amount provided, $221,926,000, and a projected 200 security positions, are to strengthen the Department’s capacity to respond to the growing security challenges at posts around the world, including the requested positions for the second year of the Visa and Passport Security Plan.

Embassy Security Constructions and Maintenance

The conference agreement provides $1,724,150,000 for Embassy Security, Construction, and Maintenance, which is the same as the House and Senate, of which $847,300,000 is for priority worldwide security upgrades, acquisition, and construction and $876,850,000 is for other operations, maintenance and construction.

The following provisions are new, modified from the Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009 (Public Law 111-8), or further clarified in this joint statement.

Sec. 7006. Local Guard Contracts.

The conference agreement includes a new provision which allows the Secretary of State flexibility to award local guard contracts on the basis of either lowest price that is technically acceptable or the best value cost-technical tradeoff (as defined in the Federal Acquisition Regulation part 15.101) when awarding such contracts in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan.

Current law requires that all local guard contracts must be awarded on the basis of the lowest price that is technically acceptable, and if other factors had been considered, the problems reported earlier this year involving the local guard contract in Kabul, Afghanistan may have been prevented. The conferees understand that providing the Secretary with authority to make awards through the best value approach can enhance the guard force’s effectiveness and justify the additional cost, particularly in countries with dangerous or hostile environments.

Check out Diplopundit here.

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