Objective:
We determined whether the Army monitored contractor performance and costs of the Enhanced Army Global Logistics Enterprise–Afghanistan (EAGLE-AFG) maintenance contract to ensure that the contractor maintained tactical vehicles and weapons in accordance with contract requirements while keeping costs to a minimum.
Background:
EAGLE-AFG contract W52P1J-12-G-0048, task order 0002, is a cost-plus-fixed‑fee contract that provides maintenance, supply, and transportation services to the U.S. and Coalition partners throughout Afghanistan. The contractor provides maintenance for vehicles, such as armored security vehicles and Mine‑Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles. The contractor also provides maintenance services for weapons, such as machine guns. The contract is valued at $429 million, with 1 base year and 4 option years. As of May 24, 2018, the contract was in Option Year 2, and the Army had paid $77.8 million.
Army Contracting Command– Afghanistan (ACC-Afghanistan) is primarily responsible for overseeing the contract. The administrative contracting officer (ACO) and quality assurance specialist oversee the contracting officer’s representatives (CORs) who perform monthly surveillance to observe and document contractor performance.
Findings:
We determined that ACC-Afghanistan did not monitor contractor performance of certain critical requirements or monitor contractor costs for the EAGLE-AFG task order to ensure that vehicles and weapons were maintained in accordance with contract requirements. Specifically, CORs did not:
- determine actual contractor performance for specific critical requirements, such as maintenance turnaround time, because the Army’s maintenance system of record, Global Combat Support System – Army, did not produce regular reports for performance requirements, and ACC-Afghanistan did not develop alternate methods for CORs to verify contractor performance, such as gathering customer feedback;
- conduct consistent sampling of contractor documentation to determine compliance with contract requirements because the quality assurance specialist did not provide CORs with sampling guidance and procedures necessary for reviewing contractor documentation; and
- monitor contractor invoices, as required by the EAGLE-AFG Purchasing and Invoicing Guide, because the ACO did not appoint a COR to perform invoice reviews.
As a result, the Army does not have reasonable assurance that the EAGLE-AFG contractor complied with certain critical requirements of the contract. Without engaging with customers, the CORs were unable to identify customer dissatisfaction with contractor maintenance turnaround time. In addition, without consistent contractor oversight, the ACO could not provide the procuring contracting officer with sufficient evidence to accurately rate the contractor’s performance and potentially assess any reductions of the fee payable to the contractor for noncompliance with contract requirements. Furthermore, the Army does not have reasonable assurance that costs billed, valued at $77.8 million, were allowable in accordance with the terms of the contract.
Recommendations:
We recommend that the ACC-Afghanistan Commander:
- instruct the ACO to document and distribute requirements for CORs to use to evaluate contractor compliance with turnaround time requirements;
- update COR surveillance checklists to include alternate methods of surveillance, such as customer feedback, to evaluate contractor performance and compliance;
- update the quality assurance surveillance plan with sampling guidance to ensure that CORs perform consistent monthly surveillance procedures; and
- confirm that the ACO completes a designation letter to require a COR to perform invoice reviews and validation as detailed in with the contract’s special invoicing requirement and identify these responsibilities in the COR’s designation letter
We recommend that the 401st Army Field Support Battalion – Afghanistan (AFSBn-AFG) Commander nominate a COR to perform invoice and validation reviews as required by the contract’s special invoicing procedures.
We recommend that the Army Contracting Command – Rock Island (ACC-RI) Director, in coordination with the 401st AFSBn-AFG Commander, modify the contract to establish a timeframe requirement for the contractor to complete final inspections of vehicles and weapons.
Management Actions:
During the audit, we briefed ACC-Afghanistan and 401st AFSBn-AFG officials on the performance and financial oversight deficiencies of the EAGLE-AFG contract. ACC-Afghanistan and 401st AFSB-AFG officials agreed with our recommendations and took the following actions to address the oversight deficiencies.
- ACC-Afghanistan officials and the contractor determined a suitable turnaround time for maintenance services in Afghanistan’s contingency environment. The turnaround time requirement would remain 5, 8, or 30 days based on the priority of the work order. The ACO stated the CORs will be evaluating the turnaround time requirement in June 2018.
- On June 20, 2018, the ACO sent an e-mail to the CORs directing them to place flyers with their contact information at the locations where work orders are processed. The ACO also instructed the CORs to review survey comments submitted each month for their respective bases. Also, the COR monthly status report includes direction that require the CORs to review customer satisfaction surveys.
- ACC-Afghanistan officials updated the quality assurance surveillance plan to include the sampling procedures and distributed the new guidance to the CORs. This action is sufficient to close our recommendation.
These actions are sufficient to close our recommendations:
- ACC-Rock Island and ACC-Afghanistan contracting officials revised the Purchasing and Invoicing Guide and drafted internal ACC-Afghanistan procedure for conducting EAGLE-AFG invoice reviews. According to the ACO, he is reviewing all invoices for the EAGLE-AFG contract until a COR is nominated by the requiring activity and appointed, in writing, by the ACO appoints in writing a COR.
- Officials from 401st AFBSN-AFG identified a COR to review and validate the contractor’s invoices and expect to nominate the new COR in July 2018. Until then, the ACO will perform the COR duties.
- The ACC-Afghanistan ACO provided a draft performance work statement that included a 72-hour timeframe requirement for the contractor to complete final inspections. As of June 25, 2018, ACC-Rock Island officials stated that they provided the revised performance work statement to Army Sustainment Command for review and will update the contract with the requirement once it is approved.
These actions resolve our recommendations. We will close the recommendations once we verify that the planned actions are fully implemented.
This report is a result of Project No. D2018-D000JB-0061.000.