Several members of the Security Assistance Command have conducted a staff assistance visit to the Office of the Program Manager-Saudi Arabian National Guard.
The five-person team were welcomed by colleagues at Eskan Village in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and assessed operations in their respective directorates.
Prior to the visit, OPM-SANG personnel reviewed a checklist of regulatory requirements provided by their USASAC counterparts in each of their functional areas. During the visit, USASAC's subject matter experts analyzed OPM-SANG operations, trained personnel and shared best practices.
"Without visiting and conducting a SAV, there's no efficient method for a commander to determine whether a staff is in compliance with regulatory requirements and policies," said USASAC operations planner (G3) Roger Bauer.
Bauer was the lead planner for OPM-SANG and other USASAC SAVs. He has participated in more than 20 SAVs during his military and civilian career.
"The element and staff may be operating with several deficiencies and without knowing what right looks like," he said. "Therefore, it's the commander's responsibility to set their organization up for success and make available technical expertise to his staffs."
The Organizational Inspection Program integrates four components: command inspections, staff inspections, Inspector General inspections and external inspections. The purpose of the OIP is to coordinate inspections and assistance visits into a single, cohesive program focused on command objectives. SAVs may include the characteristics of an inspection, but are considered unofficial inspections without ratings.
Bauer said visits are conducted only by request or authorization of the commander, or as directed by the USASAC command group. In addition to operational improvement, SAVs also serve to strength relationships between the staffs.
"It really is setting element and staffs up for success, allowing everyone to see what right looks like," Bauer said.
He said the OPM-SANG visit went exceptionally well. Having the checklists in well in advance of the visit, conducting regular IPRs between both organizations, and constant communication between counterparts made it a relatively smooth process.
An outbrief to OPM-SANG program manager Brig. Gen. Paul Laughlin is scheduled for June 23. Laughlin will then provide McDonald with results of the SAV, corrective actions that were made, areas that need improvement and an overview of the readiness of the organization.
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