Procurement management review a key topic at ACC-RI town hall

By Liz Greenawalt, Army Contracting Command-Rock IslandJanuary 10, 2017

Procurement management review a key topic at ACC-RI town hall
1 / 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Procurement management review a key topic at ACC-RI town hall
2 / 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL
Procurement management review a key topic at ACC-RI town hall
3 / 3 Show Caption + Hide Caption – (Photo Credit: U.S. Army) VIEW ORIGINAL

ROCK ISLAND ARSENAL, Illinois -- A town hall was held for Army Contracting Command-Rock Island employees in Heritage Hall, Jan. 9.

Jay Carr, ACC-RI executive director, presented awards and recognition to several employees prior to presentations. He also said town halls will be held on a monthly basis and enforced the importance of having a respectful workforce.

Carr presented Benjamin Buerkens, Vicki Carrington, David Fields and Tami Lord with the Commander's Award for Civilian Service for their support of the 403rd Army Field Support Brigade. Buerkens was presented with a 10-year length of service certificate and Roseanna Meyrer was presented with a 5-year certificate.

The results from ACC-RI's 2016 Combined Federal Campaign Soup Showdown were also announced. The winners in the individual categories were Scott Tague (1st place), Nancy Debo (2nd place), and Kaitlin Rasdon (3rd place). The group entry winners were: Eagle and Sustainment Contracting (1st place), Installations Contracting (2nd place), and IT Contracting (3rd place).

Carr then discussed his first two months as executive director, and enforced the fact that he can accept "pretty much any mistake" an employee makes with the exception of harassment, sexual harassment, bullying, or anything that leads to a hostile work environment.

"I won't go through the war stories of my military career, but we all know nothing will ruin the morale of the organization quicker than a hostile work environment," said Carr. "I would ask that every one of you, when we go through these mandatory classes on [Sexual Harassment Assault Response & Prevention] or [Equal Employment Opportunity], or whatever the class is, pay attention."

Michelle Blocker-Rosebrough, chief, Policy Branch, ACC-RI, provided a presentation on some of the changes being made to the Procurement Management Review process. PMRs are thorough reviews of individual contract actions intending to gauge compliance with acquisition policies and regulations, and create a "risk rating" for the center.

In the past, ACC headquarters conducted PMRs of all of its centers every other year, but it is modifying the way PMRs are handled.

As a result of these changes, the ACC-RI Policy office taking on more duties to support an internal self-assessment program that will provide headquarters with a variety of reports, trends and best practices. Essentially, the internal program will review contract actions from across the center to ensure the files are complete and in good order.

Based off of this internal review, the Policy office will provide the workforce with a general trends report, while specific contract reviews will be provided to division and branch chiefs, so issues can be addressed prior to the next PMR, scheduled for December 2017.

Should that PMR determine ACC-RI's contract packages are low-risk, another review will not be held until 2020. If the December PMR determines ACC-RI is medium- or high-risk, the next PMR would be held in 2019 or 2018, respectively.

"We work really hard and I know you guys work really hard to make ACC-Rock Island look good," said Blocker-Rosebrough. "The risk rating is going to impact that and it's going to impact what our customers think of us and it's also going to impact the work that comes here to ACC-Rock Island, so we want to make sure that we have a good risk rating."

In the past two PMRs -- held in 2012 and 2014 -- ACC-RI had low-risk ratings.

Daniel Miller, chief, Pricing Division, ACC-RI, rounded out the remainder of the town hall with an overview of his division, including a workload overview, discussion of services his staff provides, notable past projects and the support provided to entities outside of ACC-RI.

Related Links:

Army Contracting Command-Rock Island website

Army Contracting Command-Rock Island Facebook