DoD Contractor Personnel in the USCENTCOM AOR

*2,847 Armed Private Security Contractors

o Contractor Posture: Approximately 29,389 DoD contractors supported operations in Afghanistan during 1st quarter FY19, an increase of 16.4% from 4th quarter FY18. Local Nationals comprise 21.5% of total contractor force; 23,078 US/TCN remain to redeploy.

o A total of 2,847 Private Security Contractors (PSCs) were supporting USCENTCOM operations in Afghanistan as of 1st quarter FY19.

DoD PSC Personnel in Afghanistan

 USCENTCOM Operational Contract Support Integration Cell (OCSIC). During this quarter, the USCENTCOM J4 (CCJ4) integrated OCS into the INTERNAL LOOK 19 exercise through the execution of the OCS working group. Additionally, USCENTCOM began transitioning OCS capabilities from Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar to Headquarters USCENTCOM, MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. The relocation will improve OCS integration and synchronization across the USCENTCOM staff. The relocation will be completed by May 2019.

 Combined Joint Task Force-OIR (CJTF-OIR). The 408th Contracting Support Brigade (CSB) continues to provide the contracting support for this Combined Joint Operations Area (CJOA) on behalf of US Army Central Command (USARCENT). During this quarter, the USARCENT Commanding General (CG) increased CJTF-OIR’s requirements validation approval threshold. The delegation of the CJTF-OIR CG reduces validation time for contracted requirements, accelerating support to the Warfighter.

 Operation Freedom Sentinel OFS. Army Contracting Command-Afghanistan (ACC-A), Lead Service for Contracting in Afghanistan, continued supporting US Forces – Afghanistan (USFOR-A) and the Combined Security Transition Command-Afghanistan (CSTC-A) through
the execution of theater support contracts and Contingency Contracting Administration Services (CCAS). Close collaboration between ACC-A and the USFOR-A OCSIC continued and improved requirement preparation and validation, contract award timeliness, surveillance, and administration.

 USCENTCOM Vendor Vetting. In accordance with the FY15 National Defense Authorization Act, Section 841, Never Contract with the Enemy, General Votel designated two companies, and associated entities, as supporting the insurgency. The designations ensure the companies will not be eligible for US Government contracts in the future. During the first quarter of FY19, the Vendor Vetting Decision Board considered 151 companies, resulting in 135 “Acceptable” rated companies (89.4%), and 16 companies rated as “Unacceptable without Mitigation” (10.5%).

IMPROVEMENTS TO MANAGEMENT AND OVERSIGHT OF DOD CONTRACTORS

 Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (ODASD) Logistics.

o 1st Quarter FY19 OCS Functional Capabilities Integration Board (FCIB). The OCS FCIB convened on December 4, 2018 to receive information on initiatives to support current and future contingency operations. The U.S. Africa Command Deputy J4 provided an information brief on current operations and challenges impacting operations in their AOR.

The Board also endorsed a strategy to complete a new annual congressional report to congress in late January that measures the Armed Forces ability to provide OCS capability. A Joint Staff J4 sponsored FY20 legislative proposal for Vendor Threat Mitigation (VTM) received DoD approval and is currently under review by the Office of Management and Budget, a significant milestone for the VTM program. The next quarterly FCIB meeting will be held on February 26, 2019.

o OCS Joint Doctrine, Organization, Training, materiel, Leadership and Education, Personnel, and Facilities-Policy (DOTmLPF-P) Change Recommendation (DCR) Implementation Underway. DoD-wide implementation of the Joint OCS DCR by 2022 is underway. Offices of Primary Responsibility in collaboration with Offices of Coordinating Responsibility are currently working to complete 54 comprehensive implementation plans to guide OCS capability integration efforts. The Joint OCS DCR Working Group will assess each plan prior to review and approval by the FCIB in February 2019. The first semi-annual implementation progress update to the Logistics Functional Capabilities Board is scheduled for January 24, 2019.

o Defense Standards for Security Services.

 All DoD contracts for private security services require compliance with American National Standard Institute (ANSI) PSC.1-2012 (R2017), “Quality Management Standard for Private Security Company Operations” or ISO 18788-2015 “Management Systems for Private Security Operations.” All PSCs at any tier are certified to one or both of these standards.

 A total of 72 PSCs from 16 different countries have achieved independent third party certification to one or both of these standards. Another 22 PSCs from 17 countries are known to have begun the certification process. This is an increase of 13% since the last report.

 Joint Contingency Acquisition Support Office (JCASO). JCASO continues to provide Combatant Commands a joint enabling capability to integrate, coordinate, and synchronize OCS during peacetime, contingency operations, and post-conflict operations. Recent JCASO engagements include:

o Global Support to Combatant Commanders: JCASO continues OCS planning efforts across the regions, domains, and functions to provide additional options for decision makers, including the most challenging scenarios identified in the current National Defense and Military Strategy. Simultaneously, during the reporting period JCASO responded to realworld global operations including support to: ATLANTIC RESOLVE in Poland, U.S. Army North for the mission in the southwest U.S., as well as support in the wake of Hurricanes Florence and Michael in the eastern U.S.

o CENTCOM Support:

 USFOR-A OCSIC: JCASO has deployed a member to serve as Deputy Director of the USFOR-A OCSIC to support OCS efforts in the AOR.

 OCS Planning: JCASO provides OCS planning support to CCJ4 including developing the final draft of the USCENTCOM Theater Distribution Plan Appendix 3 (OCS Appendix), a CCJ4-approved USCENTCOM Subordinate Command OCS Planning Template, and support to INTERNAL LOOK 19. In additional the JCASO Planners reviewed contract data to ensure contracts were not awarded to vendors identified as supporting the insurgency in accordance with FY15 National Defense Authorization Act.

 OCS Tutor Pilot Program: OCS Tutors remained embedded with the Army, Air Force, Marine Corps and US Special Operations Command to assist in developing and implementing OCS programs, including training and product/tool development. At USARCENT, the tutor provided targeted, mission specific OCS tutoring/training to multiple echelon-above-brigade units scheduled to rotate into the AOR during the next cycle.

 The Joint Staff (JS), J4, Operational Contract Support Division (OCSD).

o OCS Reporting. The CJCS Risk Assessment on Contract Support was approved and incorporated in the Quarterly Readiness Report to Congress. Combatant commands, Services, and Agencies completed military OCS quarterly assessments and reporting to include identifying reliance by joint function.

o OCS Education. OCSD, in cooperation with JS J7, completed the OCS portion of the Process for Accreditation of Joint Education assessment of the National Intelligence University (NIU) in Bethesda, Maryland. NIU met their OCS joint learning objective at the required level.

o OCS Planning. OCSD continued to work closely with combatant commands to assess and develop approaches to planning for commercial support to operations. In concert with ongoing joint staff readiness reviews, OCSD focused on identifying and depicting commercial support interdependencies during contingencies and providing planning assessment and feedback on newly revised contingency plan noting significantly improved completeness and alignment with OCS policy and doctrine. This effort supports adaptation of plans to account for allied and partner contributions and reliance as well as a deeper understanding of the commercial space. OCSD comprehensively revised the OCS annex to the joint strategic campaign plan logistics supplement, setting guidance for planning OCS in globally integrated campaigning.

o Individual Training.

 Joint OCS Planning and Execution Courses (JOPEC). OCSD delivered two (November and December) JOPECs to 49 students. Since the course’s founding in 2013, 1,374 students have been trained.

 Joint Knowledge On-line (JKO). During the 1st quarter FY19, 782 personnel completed the Joint OCS Essentials for Commanders and Staff (JOECS) Phase 1 and 104 personnel completed the Phase 2 online course. As of December 21, 2018, 13,316 personnel have completed an OCS introductory online course.

 Staff Joint Training. Finalized dates and set the tentative agenda for the U.S. European Command – NATO Support and Procurement Agency table top event on February 13, 2019 to be followed by a U.S.-only event on February 14, 2019 to examine processes and procedures during conflict.

 The Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (OPNAV) published Instruction on OCS. On November 14, 2018, the Director of the Navy Staff signed and published OPNAV Instruction 3020.12, Planning for Operational Contract Support. This instruction prescribes policy, responsibilities, and requirements for supporting OCS for joint and naval operations, and implementing the DoD OCS policies.

The government is not keeping up with the demand for clearances. As of last month, the National Background Investigations Bureau within the Office of Personnel Management -- which performs 95% of federal background checks -- had accumulated a backlog of 570,000 applications. Delays in granting initial Top Secret clearances are averaging over 500 days. Average time required to receive an initial Confidential/Secret clearance, one of the least demanding in terms of required background checks, is 262 days.

These delays have been particularly hard on industry, because it is difficult to attract and retain talent when new employees may have to cool their heels for a year or longer before beginning work on classified programs. One big contractor reports that as of April, 72% of the clearances it has requested since January of 2016 were still awaiting initial clearance determinations. Another contractor reported 75% of requests for background checks or periodic reinvestigations were still pending after 18 months; 10% were still pending after 24 months.

The hidden cost to taxpayers of these long delays is huge. An engineer hired at a defense contractor for $100,000 per year will cost the company $725 per day in salary and benefits, which gets added to overhead if they cannot work on the project for which they were hired. If the wait to receive an initial clearance determination is 300 days, it will cost the company $217,500 -- which then gets billed to the government as a price of doing business. Multiply this number by the tens of thousands of workers awaiting clearances, and you see the problem.

But the waste does not end there. When clearances take a year or longer to process, programs are delayed, workers are under-employed, and holding on to the people who are most in demand becomes a challenge. Nobody rigorously tracks what all this inefficiency costs the government, but over time it is undoubtedly in the billions of dollars. Imagine hiring a bright young employee and then having to wait 351 days to receive final determination on a simple Secret clearance before they can actually be assigned to the tasks for which they were sought.

The problem has gotten so bad that OPM has begun loosening its standards to cope with the backlog. In February it modified its requirement for five-year reinvestigations of Top Secret clearances on some special-access programs because it couldn't keep up with demand. So now the delays are not only wasting money, they are potentially compromising the security of programs for which clearances were granted in the first place. Obviously, the system needs major reform.

The Obama Administration belatedly recognized the problem during its last year in office, and began transitioning to a new approach with the creation of the National Background Investigations Bureau, which superseded the old Federal Investigative Service. Under the Obama plan, OPM would partner with the Department of Defense in replacing antiquated computer systems, barriers to accessing criminal history records would be torn down, and much of the current clearance and credentialing process would be automated.

It's hard to argue with any of that, but the last year of an administration isn't the optimal time to launch a major reorganization. The new bureau is a work in progress that so far hasn't gotten much attention from the Trump administration. Even if it does, the unpredictable way in which the government budgets could undermine whatever progress is occurring. The delays in granting clearances grew worse after the Budget Control Act imposed arbitrary caps on discretionary spending, beginning in 2012.

This seems like the kind of challenge that bodies such as the Aerospace Industries Association could help shepherd through the bureaucracy to a successful outcome. Few organizations understand the nexus between industry and government better than AIA, and reform of the clearance process needs an advocate outside the government. Every military contractor that belongs to the industry associations is being harmed by defects in the current system, so perhaps places like AIA could weigh in to keep the reform process on track.

The onslaught of cyber crimes in recent years has yielded a host of innovations for continuously tracking the behavior of cleared personnel, identifying the telltale signs of insider threats, and otherwise assisting in the protection of sensitive information. Somebody needs to be identifying new tools that can help streamline the security process and minimize the waste associated with delayed clearances. Leading industry associations like AIA seem well positioned to help fix this problem.