JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas (Aug. 27, 2013) -- When a water pipe burst and destroyed an area of the Installation Management Command Fort Riley, Kansas, garrison headquarters Aug. 19, Soldiers and civilians turned to members of the Mission and Installation Contracting Command contracting office for help.
"I received a phone call early Monday morning from David Scruggs, chief of engineering services division for public works," said David Wild, director of Mission and Installation Contracting Command Fort Riley. "He asked for emergency assistance in obtaining contract support to remediate extensive water damage to the building."
The damage was caused by a water line break in a closed loop heat pump on the second floor in a building conference room. Based on the extent of damage to basement as well as the first and second floors, it is estimated the break occurred on Aug. 16 after the staff left for the weekend. The pooling of significant amounts of water destroyed the first floor and basement floor ceilings, walls and flooring on all three floors, along with furniture, information technology equipment, copier, electrical panel and a communications panel.
"The events surrounding this action are typical of all urgent and compelling requirements involving threat to life, health, safety and property," Wild said. "This is a fairly common occurrence for a MICC office following any type of storm, fire or other disasters."
One of those affected offices was the installation resource management office, a critical fiscal triad partner necessary to meet contingency emergencies such as this one. In a contingency environment such as this, the contracting officer seeks assurance of funds and legal approval to execute an emergency contract action. With that assurance, Don Peters, a MICC contract specialist at Fort Riley, was able to contact a local restoration contractor and meet him at the damage site with department of public works employees, Staff Sgts. Walter Perez, and Nadejda Vrobyevasantiago for an initial damage assessment and begin the process of estimating methods and the costs of remediation.
With time being critical, the initial contractor submitted two quotes for the government's consideration and was given contracting officer approval to commence with water and debris removal, while Peters was negotiating with competing contractors to ensure fair and reasonable prices. Meanwhile after seeking public works service contract approval through the local garrison commander, Peters was able to obtain three quotes and recommend award of a purchase order for debris removal and drying out the facility.
Several garrison offices were relocated to available space across the installation while the cleanup was taking place. The MICC-Fort Riley contracting office offered and is housing the Equal Employment Oppourtunity office and is awaiting a decision on an offer to house the installation Internal Review and Audit Compliance Office until the damage is repaired.
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. In fiscal 2012, the command executed more than 58,000 contract actions worth more than $6.3 billion across the Army, including more than $2.6 billion to small businesses. The command also managed more than 1.2 million Government Purchase Card Program transactions valued at an additional $1.3 billion.
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