Mr. James Cooper, 410th Contract Support Brigade quality assurance specialist came to Forward Operating Base Alpha to teach soldiers how to be contract officer representatives April 26, 2016.
During the class Cooper taught seven non-commissioned officers the ins and outs of invoice and contract management when dealing with contractors. More importantly he taught how to read and evaluate contracts and judge worker performance.
"I'm here to teach soldiers contract oversight and contractor performance," said Cooper. "I also teach them what to look for while evaluating a contractor, how to document the performance and how to use the right corrective actions to get everyone back in line with the contract."
After this training, soldiers will also be known as contract officer representatives and will have the authority to recommend payment or not recommend payment of a contract through their observations, Cooper added.
Some of items the CORs are trained on to be observant for are: Inflated labor hours, math errors, missing invoice information and duplicate invoices.
"In my experience companies are not out to swindle and rob from the Defense Department they just make mistakes," said Cooper. "The DoD tries to help and support smaller companies to build them up and if errors are found the DoD will typically work with the companies contractor to make it right."
The training the NCOs received added tools to their kits of knowledge and reinforced good habits that they already had.
"I've completed several contracts in the past and the training made me more knowledge in what I can and cannot do," said U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Shaun Rase, 1038th Engineer Company engineer. I also feel more confident with COR responsibilities."
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