Classes help Contracting Officers' Representatives better understand role in managing compliance

By Karl Weisel (USAG Wiesbaden)August 28, 2013

Classes help Contracting Officers' Representatives better understand role in managing compliance
(Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

WIESBADEN, Germany - Contracting Officer's Representatives play a critical role in overseeing the government's money, support and services. Ensuring that contracts are managed properly takes dedicated individuals knowledgeable in the administrative requirements of monitoring contracts.

For many employees, it is not their primary duty, but an important additional responsibility.

"With ongoing transformation and increasing maintenance requirements, we wanted to ensure that our CORs engage with our contracting subject matter experts," said Maj. William McGlothlin, operations officer for the U.S. Army Garrison Wiesbaden's Directorate of Public Works.

"We wanted to create partnerships between the Regional Contracting Office (Wiesbaden), the 409th Contracting Support Brigade and garrison CORs," added McGlothlin, saying that the garrison invited subject matter experts to Wiesbaden for several training sessions in August.

"I think a key piece of the recent training was to have a forum for personal interaction -- especially with the quality assurance team from Kaiserslautern," said Sabine Schindler, a member of the USAG Wiesbaden Plans, Analysis and Integration Office.

Because a lot of the training is online, Schindler said, organizers wanted to provide an environment where participants could network, form partnerships and voice their concerns.

In addition to linking up the CORs with one another and the subject matter experts for additional support and guidance, the training provided an opportunity to share lessons learned from experienced CORs with past contract oversight.

It also gave host nation CORs who might have had difficulty digesting the information and lessons provided in online training a better understanding of the intricacies of serving as a COR.

"The plan is to replicate the training every six months," McGlothlin added.

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