WASHINGTON — A U.S. House-passed Pentagon policy bill raises concerns about the Defense Department’s use of private contractors in Africa, citing problems encountered in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The lower chamber’s version of the 2015 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), passed May 22, contains a provision that would require the US comptroller general to deliver lawmakers a detailed report about US Africa Command’s ability to “plan, manage and oversee contractors.”
“While the challenges and deficiencies regarding the planning, management, and oversight of contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan have been well documented, and the department has taken several steps to address these challenges, the [House Armed Services Committee] notes that the challenges associated with contractor support for other types of operations in other regions could be substantially different,” states a report accompanying the legislation.
“In addition to broader concerns regarding planning, management, and oversight of contracts of this nature, the committee is concerned about the extent to which the Department may face operational contract support challenges in AFRICOM,” states the House report.
The HASC-crafted language comes as the White House is quietly shifting more US military and intelligence resources from Afghanistan and Pakistan toward North Africa. In another section, the same House report calls Africa “the front lines of the next phase of the terrorist threat.”
A senior administration official last week told reporters the White House’s new approach for fighting al-Qaida stretches “all the way to the Sahel,” adding the US will have “resources to allocate across the region.”
The provision would, if included in a final version of the bill, require a comptroller general study into “the processes AFRICOM uses to plan, manage and oversee contractors that support its military operations conducted in Africa.”
Members want the study to look at how much contractors are used to support AFRICOM operations, including the “appropriateness” of the practice. In addition, the lawmakers want to know the extent to which the command “depends on the Department of State to provide operational contract support to its activities in Africa and the potential challenges associated with this support.”
The comptroller general also must examine AFRICOM’s organizational structure used to manage contractors, and the “processes used to vet non-United States contractors and contractor employees.”
The report would be due to the congressional defense panel by April 15, 2015. The Senate Armed Services Committee passed its NDAA the same day. A report and bill text are not yet available, though an aide tells CongressWatch it has been filed and should be posted online “very soon.” source: www.defensenews.com
The U.S. private security contractor Academi has trained Brazilian police forces for the World Cup, according to an article published by journalist Patricia Campos Melo, of newspaper Folha de S Paulo. A group of 22 federal policemen as well as military policemen from different states were sent to the Academi training center in Moyock, in North Carolina, where they were taught anti-terrorism techniques in the largest private training center in the United States, that includes scenario facilities, four ship-boarding simulators, two airfields and three drop-zones. According to Lieutenant Ricardo Nogueira, of the Sao Paulo Police, the course -- named "Maritime Interdiction of terrorism" -- focused on the US experience in fighting terrorism.
But if you have never heard of Academi, don't worry. I am sure you know who I am talking about. Academi is the company formerly known as Blackwater, one of the biggest U.S. contractors in the early stages of the occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan under billion-dollar military Defense Department contracts. The company is accused of killing 17 Iraqis in a massacre in Nisour square in 2007 and of other misdeeds that led to two changes of its name in the past 5 years.
This is the same company that trained the Greek police forces for the 2004 Olympics in Athens, a prominent player in a security market that covers form the protection of sensitive infrastructure like mines in Africa, to secure compounds in Afghanistan, and of course security of mega events. Most of the employees are former soldiers, and the proximity with the U.S. government means that many sensitive tasks -- from training foreign forces to protecting foreign diplomats -- are third partied to them.
As Wikileaks documents showed back in 2010, the U.S. has vamped up its assistance on anti-terrorism for the World Cup because it saw a right risk of danger -- and also a great business opportunity for its companies. However, opaqueness surrounds this support; the total investment of the U.S. embassy in the training was only revealed now -- U.S.$ 2.2 million over the past 2 years. The deal was never publicized in full, and many questions remain. The Ministry of Justice is yet to explain for instance, how many courses were funded by the U.S., and who were the trainers -- U.S. military? Mercenaries?
CONTRACTOR SUPPORT OF U.S. OPERATIONS IN THE USCENTCOM AREA OF RESPONSIBILITY
BACKGROUND: This report updates DoD contractor personnel numbers in theater and outlines DoD efforts to improve management of contractors accompanying U.S. forces. It covers DoD contractor personnel deployed in Afghanistan (Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF)) and the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) area of responsibility (AOR).
KEY POINTS: In 2nd quarter FY 2014, USCENTCOM reported approximately 78,638 contractor personnel working for the DoD in the USCENTCOM AOR. This total reflects a decrease of approximately 20.5K from the previous quarter. A breakdown of DoD contractor personnel is provided below:
Afghanistan Summary
The distribution of contractors in Afghanistan by mission category are:
Base Support: 6,834 (11%)
Commo Support: 2,451 ( 4%)
Construction: 7,877 (13%)
Logistics/Maintenance: 20,568 (33%)
Security: 5,591 ( 9%)
Training: 1,788 ( 3%)
Translator/Interpreter: 4,889 ( 8%)
Transportation: 5,064 ( 8%)
Medical/Dental/Social Services: 283 ( 1%)
Management/Administrative: 5,316 ( 9%)
Other*: 791 ( 1%)
Total: 61,452
*Includes Defense Logistics Agency, Army Materiel Command, Air Force External and Systems Support contracts, Special Operations Command and INSCOM.
General Data on DoD Private Security Contractor Personnel in Afghanistan
Improvements to Management and Oversight of DoD Contractors
o Business and operational standards for PSCs (which were required by Section 833 of the FY2011 NDAA) are now complete and were validated by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in early March 2012. The associated conformity assessment to enable third party certification was published in April 2012. A maturity model, allowing companies and contract management to assess the degree of conformity with the standard, was approved by ANSI in January 2012. Under sponsorship by DoD, the ANSI standard is now being developed as an international standard to be published by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
o On May 22, 2012, DoD issued procedures, guidance and information (PGI) to the DFARS requiring compliance with the ANSI PSC standard for combat operations and other contingency operations. Standards and provision for third party certification in Section 833 of the FY 2011 NDAA will facilitate identifying technically acceptable contractors and best value. This will enable expedited contract award; mitigate risk of delay of services due to contract award protests; and mitigate risk of contractor non-performance or misconduct in critical early phases of contingency operations. Conformity assessment standards and the associated maturity model also provide valuable tools for DoD contract oversight.
o The United Kingdom has adopted the PSC ANSI standards as their national standard ensuring continuity between the key allies.
This senior executive-level governance forum was chartered by the Under Secretary of Defense (Acquisition, Technology & Logistics) in March 2010 to provide strategic leadership to multiple stakeholders working to institutionalize OCS. Co-chaired by the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Program Support) [DASD(PS)] and Joint Staff, Vice Director J-4, the FCIB convenes quarterly (or as required) to address strategic issues impacting current and future contingency operations. Key topics in 2Q FY14 reviewed by the Board included:
o Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) International Contingency Contract Administration Services (CCAS) Transition
o Air Force CCAS Implementation Status Update
o Joint Staff J-4 Update
DCMA International presented its DCMA CCAS Transition Concept, in which DCMA will: plan for continued execution of current delegations ending prior to September 2015; identify contracts that continue beyond September 2015 and transition them to appropriate service. SAF/AQC provided an update on Air Force CCAS transition actions, focusing on the Air Force Contract Augmentation Program (AFCAP) milestones. Joint Staff J-4 provided an update on their efforts to: 1) engage with HASC professional staffers on OCS Joint Exercise 2014 lessons learned; 2) evaluate and shape OCS requirements in all operations plans; 3) update the Joint Requirements Oversight Council on OCS Joint Concept implementation; 4) evaluate the OCS Mission Integrator pilot capability at PACOM; 4) publish Joint Publication 4-10 by June 2014.
The 3rd Quarter FCIB Principals level meeting will be held on May 20, 2014, in the Secretary of the Army Conference Center.
o Deploying teams for 6-month rotations to support the OCSDC and provide expertise in the drawdown efforts;
o Leading and managing the economic development initiative (i.e., local procurements) in the Central Asian States in support of the Northern Distribution Network (NDN) strategy in the USCENTCOM AOR;
o Leading and managing the Afghanistan Contract Transition Workgroup (ACTW) to facilitate the interagency coordination for planning and transitioning OCS from DoD to DOS; and
o Participating in joint exercises in 2014 (e.g., PANAMAX, ULCHI FREEDOM GUARDIAN) to integrate OCS in training and assess the effectiveness of OCS plans.
Exercises. The first ever OCS Joint Exercise (OCSJX-14) was held in January 2014 at Ft. Bliss, Texas. The exercise trained attendees on the OCS tasks for Contract Support Integration, Contracting Support and Contractor Management. The OCSJX-14 scenario was based on a complex catastrophe in the US NORTHCOM area of responsibility. The training audiences were OCS staff members from USNORTHCOM, USARNORTH, US Army Expeditionary Contracting Command's 412th Contract Support Brigade, US Air Force and Navy contracting personnel. Other key DOD stakeholders that participated were; FEMA, USACE, DLA JCASO, DASD-PS, DPAP and NGB. Planning for the FY-15 exercise is underway and is tentatively planned for the USPACOM AOR.
─ PACOM: 2nd QTR FY 14
─ CENTCOM, SOCOM, &SOUTHCOM: 3rd QTR FY 14
─ USFK (U.S. Forces Korea) & USFJ (U.S. Forces Japan): 3rd QTR FY 14
─ National Capital Region: 3rd QTR FY14 (Tentative)
o ODASD(PS), the Joint Staff J4, and Headquarters DA are working to develop a OCS multi-service course from an existing Army course at the Army Logistics University. The course roll out projection date is fourth quarter FY15.
OCS Joint Concept. JROC Memorandum 159-13, 7 October 2013, approved the OCS Joint Concept. This concept envisions that contracted support for military operations will be an interdependent capability of Joint Force 2020 (JF 2020). This concept addresses how JF 2020 can operationalize OCS to optimize contracted support capabilities of the total force partners to achieve operational effects across the range of military operations within acceptable and manageable risk levels. It builds upon ongoing efforts to institutionalize OCS in the present force and proposes a full spectrum doctrine, organization, training, materiel, leadership and education, and personnel capability solution framework to deliver more responsive and accountable OCS. The OCS Joint Concept will be implemented through the inclusion of concept implementation tasks in the OCS Action Plan. In April 2014 the JS J4 will update the JROC on the status for implementing the Joint Concept.
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