Chief Warrant Officer 5 Joachim Consiglio responds to a question at the Army Contracting Command Government Furnished Property Training Conference. Consiglio, senior logistics advisor, U.S. Army G-4, Logistics, was one of the speakers at the conferen...

Kelli King, Lora Atwell, Beverly Atkins and Kathryn Doyle discuss property administration procedures during the Army Contracting Command Government Furnished Property Training Conference. King, Hawthorne Army Depot, Nevada, Atwell, from Radford Army ...

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Robert Canario, Debra Chaney and John D'Alessandro discuss property administration functions at Army Contracting Command Government Furnished Property Training Conference. Canario, 409th Contracting Support Brigade, Sembach, G...

REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala.--Property administrators met here March 12-16 for what organizers are calling a first for the Army.

The Government Furnished Property Training Conference focused on "getting our arms around the challenges associated with accounting for property the government furnishes to contractors in order for them to perform their tasks," said David Groell, Army Contracting Command's property administration subject matter expert.

About 30 property administrators from across the Army, Soldiers and civilians, attended the training conference.

"Property administration is how we maintain supporting the warfighter," he added. "Does the contractor have the right equipment, the right test set, the right spare parts?"

Chief Warrant Officer 5 Robert Canario, government property administrator with the 409th Contracting Support Brigade, Sembach, Germany, said the training was very informative.

"We need to work together to provide a better product for the Army--the contracting officers, property administrators, and property book officers," he said. "Education is the key."

John D'Alessandro, ACC-Redstone contracting center property administrator, agreed. Formerly assigned to the Defense Contract Management Agency, he said the training is helping him understand his role in the Army system.

"We have a lot of well-meaning people trying to do the right thing," D'Alessandro said. "We're all trying to figure out how our roles relate."

Daniel Goff, a property administrator on the ACC staff, said property administration is a cradle-to-grave responsibility. The bulk of the work is after contract award, when we provide oversight and analysis of our contractor's property management system. This process continues until contract closeout.

Goff, Groell and fellow ACC Property Administrator Renee Guice designed the training conference to get the command's Soldier and civilian property administrators "on the same page," he said.

"We've spent the last five to six years developing procedures to get property administration standardized across the command," he added. "This training event gives me the avenue to get everyone together, explain the tools and then hold them accountable for their products. After this week, there won't be any surprises or excuses."

Groell estimates the Army furnishes about $100 billion of equipment to contractors. He said property ranges from small parts to weapons range targets, roll-over training vehicles, armored personnel carriers and tanks.

Accounting for all that property is "monumental," he added, and requires a team effort across the contracting enterprise, including contracting officers, property book officers, contractors and property administration experts.

"My biggest challenge is getting my arms around what the Army has," he said. "How many contracts have government-furnished property on them?"

ACC executes more than 150,000 contract actions annually. In fiscal year 2017, ACC executed more than 165,000 contract actions valued at more than $62 billion.