Objective
At selected U.S. controlled and occupied facilities in Kandahar Air Field (KAF) and Bagram Air Field (BAF), Afghanistan, we inspected for:
- Compliance with the National Electrical Code (NEC)
- Compliance with the Unified Facilities Criteria (UFC), and the National Fire Protection Association (NFPA) standards, and
- Corrective actions for previous DoD Office of the Inspector General (OIG) electrical and fire protection findings (Report Nos. SPO-2009-005, D2010-D000JB-0078, and DODIG-2012-089).
Findings
- Hazardous conditions due to a lack of consistent adherence to minimum NEC and NFPA standards as evidenced by 1,089 findings; 440 findings violate NEC electrical standards and 649 findings violate UFC and/or NFPA fire protection standards.
- Fire protection systems were not maintained and/or repaired.
- Garrison commands lacked qualified Government or dedicated contractor electricians, fire alarm, or fire suppression technicians on their staffs to perform inspection, testing, and maintenance.
- Inadequate Government oversight and inspection of facilities.
- Lack of independent technical support for the Government Contracting Office resulted in overreliance on facility construction and maintenance contractors.
- The Base Camp Master Plans (BCMPs) lacked a comprehensive fire protection plan.
- Corrective actions for previous DoD OIG audits and inspections were incomplete and ineffective for many findings.
Recommendations
- We recommend that a priority be given to correcting the 71critical findings tallied in Table 2 of this report.
- We recommend that all 1,089 findings which include the 71 critical findings (440 electrical and 649 fire protection findings) be addressed and prioritized according to a robust risk management plan. Furthermore this plan should be approved and coordinated with AT&L (I&E).
- We recommend that U.S. Forces-Afghanistan (USFOR-A) review the government oversight and inspection requirements for electrical and fire protection systems and ensure that sufficient qualified resources are available and deployed to meet requirements throughout the USFOR-A area of responsibility.
- We recommend that provisions be made for regular inspection and maintenance of electrical and fire protection systems.
- We recommend that the Base Camp Master Plans (BCMP) include a comprehensive fire protection plan.
- We recommend that the Commander, CENTCOM Joint Theater Support Contracting Command, review applicable contracts to determine if contractual remedies, including financial
- recovery, are appropriate in those cases where contract requirements for electrical or fire protection construction, maintenance, or repair services were not satisfied.
CENTCOM Comments
CENTCOM and their subordinate commands have reviewed our findings and recommendations. Of eleven recommendations they concur with nine and partially concur with two.
DoD OIG Response
We have reviewed the comments from CENTCOM and their subordinate commands and found them to be in general agreement with our findings. There were eleven recommendations; The CENTCOM was responsive to nine, and partially responsive to two. CENTCOM Joint Theater Support Contracting Command (JTSCC) concurred with our recommendation to review applicable contracts to determine if contractual remedies, including financial recovery, are appropriate in those cases where contract requirements for electrical or fire protection construction, or repair services were not satisfied. However, they did not say whether they intend to initiate, direct, or otherwise oversee Government action to determine if any of these contractual remedies are actually appropriate in response to the electrical and fire protection noncompliances identified in the audit report. Therefore we consider them partially responsive to this recommendation for both the electrical and the fire protection inspection.
This report is a result of Project No. D2012-DT0TAD-0002.000 and Project No. D2012-DT0TAD-0001.000.