FORT CARSON, Colorado (Sept. 23, 2014) -- Contract administration efforts by contracting members here are leading the 418th Contracting Support Brigade with the fewest number of overaged contracts and one of the lowest totals across the Mission and Installation Contracting Command.
Earlier this year, Brig. Gen. Jeffrey Gabbert, the MICC commanding general, developed standardized metrics in order to support his command priorities. One of these key metrics was percentage of overaged closeouts completed per quarter.
"Contract administration is the oversight function, from contract award to contract closeout, and it is critical to maintaining operational contract support readiness," said Lt. Col. Christopher Ostby, the 918th Contingency Contracting Battalion commander and director of MICC-Fort Carson, Colorado. "The ability to maintain a low number of overaged closeouts is one of the many ways I measure my organization's readiness."
The success by MICC-Fort Carson is the result of contract administration by Soldiers and civilians there and increased emphasis by the 418th CSB leadership at Fort Hood, Texas.
Due to the inherently high operational tempo during the fourth quarter of the fiscal year, an increased number of contracts tend to fall into the overaged category at contracting organizations. In order to combat this trend, the 918th CCBn sought an innovative and effective solution.
The battalion initiated a mission readiness exercise Sept. 6 when, upon recall, Soldiers conducted closeout operations to exercise their readiness and assess contracting skills. Within 14 hours, members of the 918th CCBn closed out more than 100 lingering contracts, greatly improving the battalion's readiness posture.
Battalion officials said the impact of the exercise was so great, that the contracting office exceeded the MICC commanding general's overaged contract closure goal. They added that an incredible amount of time, energy and effort went into the planning and preparation of the exercise.
With the help of the 230th Financial Management Support Unit here, exercise leaders researched the payment status of each overaged contract through General Fund Enterprise Business Systems. GFEBS is an Army web-enabled financial, asset and accounting management system that shares data across Army components. It also integrates enterprise-wide procurement management capabilities in use at contracting offices across the MICC.
Contracting members pulled individual payment vouchers and created declining balance sheets to assist in the closure of contracts. Because of this deliberate staging, Soldiers closed out 107 contract actions against a goal of 100.
Organization leaders have put an aggressive plan in place to ensure all overaged contracts are closed, except for those requiring final incurred cost audits by a third-party agency, by the end of the first quarter in fiscal 2015. This plan will continue in perpetuity to ensure all contracts are closed by their appropriate date set forth by regulation.
The 918th CCBn plans and executes contracting operations to support Fort Carson, the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site and Pueblo Chemical Depot. The unit also deploys and executes operational contract support for stateside and overseas contingency operations. In fiscal 2014, the unit executed more than $127 million in contracts, including more than $95 million to small businesses. The unit also managed more than $10 million in Government Purchase Card Program transactions.
Headquartered at Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston, Texas, the MICC is responsible for providing contracting support for the warfighter at Army commands, installations and activities located throughout the continental United States and Puerto Rico.
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Editor's note: Capt. Christian D. Hasbach is the 724th Contingency Contracting Team leader at Fort Carson, Colorado, who served as the officer in charge of the contracting office's mission readiness exercise.
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