Courtesy Photo | Army Lt. Col. Kim Thomas, Defense Contract Management Agency Iraq commander (center),...... read more read more
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The hustle-bustle of activity at Defense Contract Management Agency Iraq belies their operation is slated for shutdown later this year, as they continue their pedal-to-the-metal commitment to contingency contract administration services under the leadership of Army Lt. Col. Kim Thomas.
“DCMA Iraq continues to provide critical contract, property administration and quality assurance oversight for contracts supporting over 10,000 contractor employees,” said Thomas, “which is in addition to Department of Defense and associated support personnel across 17 geographically separate sites throughout Iraq.”
Thomas, an 18-year veteran, is on her fourth deployment (previously deployed to Qatar, Kuwait and Afghanistan) and was the commander of DCMA Saint Louis before she deployed in June 2012 as commander of DCMA Iraq, a tertiary command under DCMA Middle East. Her Iraq tour culminates with her reassuming command of DCMA Saint Louis.
When military operations officially ended in December 2011, the Department of State called upon DCMA to provide post-award contract administration services for the United States Mission Iraq. This support included administration of the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program and other service or supply contracts awarded for the benefit of U.S. Mission Iraq.
“These services are currently valued at over $1 billion in support of United States Mission Iraq, with the Department of State and Office of Security Cooperation – Iraq as their primary customer,” said Thomas.
Currently, with more than 570 service audits required each month conducted by 12 quality assurance specialists, and oversight on more than 145,000 lines of property, DCMA Iraq’s mission commitment continues at a furious pace. This in spite of DCMA Iraq’s manning requirement to reduce its civilian acquisition staff by nearly 40 percent since Thomas’ arrival in June 2012.
The current LOGCAP contract, providing contingency support to augment the Army force structure, represents 85 percent of DCMA Iraq’s workload. DCMA Iraq also provides contracts oversight on several maintenance, intelligence, static and convoy security service support contracts in support of Office of Security Cooperation-Iraq. The Department of State is in the process of rapidly downsizing the size and scope of Mission Iraq, including the drawdown and close out of the LOGCAP services.
With an operational shutdown looming toward the end of this year, Thomas and her staff continue to have a daunting mission responsibility in ensuring continuity of contract administration oversight while the Department of State phases in their own independent contract operations and reducing its dependence on DOD contracts by the end of this year.
“As we continue down our glide path to exiting Iraq,” said Thomas, “we are preparing to close out the LOGCAP task order and facilitate a seamless transition from the LOGCAP contract to the Department of State’s Operations and Maintenance Services Support and Base Life Support awarded contracts.”
Upon DCMA Iraq’s shutdown, direct mission oversight will migrate to DCMA Middle East, currently under the command of Air Force Col. Robert Menard. Current planning is focused on retaining only a handful of quality assurance specialists in the Middle East region in support of the Iraq mission.
| Date Taken: | 04.23.2013 |
| Date Posted: | 05.07.2013 11:16 |
| Story ID: | 106483 |
| Location: | IQ |
| Web Views: | 407 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
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