senting the requiring activity and
the contracting officer, providing
contract oversight, and influencing
the contractor to meet the terms and
conditions of the contract.
Observations, Insights, and Lessons
The Combined Arms Support Command (CASCOM) Acquisition, Logistics, Technology–Integration Office collects observations, insights, and
lessons (OILs) from many sources.
Collection sources include CASCOM’s command post exercise–
functional, Division West culminating
training events, CASCOM Reverse
Collection and Analysis Team (R–
CAAT) forums, OCS surveys, key
leader interviews, after action reviews,
and news articles.
OCS OILs are analyzed, shared,
and integrated across the DOD
OCS community of interest. The
following are some of the key OILs
regarding CORs with specific emphasis on doctrine and policy, organization, training, materiel, and
leadership and education.
Doctrine and Policy
The DOD and Department of
the Army (DA) published several
orders, directives, and guidelines re-
garding COR selection and training,
beginning in 2009. The guidance
helped to shape the predeployment
COR selection and training process.
The guidance also helped influence requiring activities to meet
COR assignment challenges and
correct shortfalls from the early
phases of Operations Iraqi and Enduring Freedom.
In addition to DOD and DA COR
guidance, the Forces Command published COR training and certification guidelines in its predeployment
training message. The message provided great insight and guidelines
regarding COR training; however, a
key observation noted that the message was not effectively distributed to
operational commands. During R–
CAAT forums, many commanders
indicated they were unaware of the
Forces Command’s predeployment
training messages.
Organization
CORs are normally additional
duty assignments. However, in many
cases, because of the complexity and
magnitude of a contract, CORs may
be required to execute COR duties
full time.
During several R–CAAT inter-
views conducted between 2011 and
2013 with unit commanders and
their staffs, leaders indicated that,
given their assigned operational
missions and loads, they were not
fully prepared to resource full-time
COR requirements with organic
personnel. Unit leaders must acknowledge and embrace contract
oversight responsibilities early on
during the predeployment process
and carefully plan to use organic resources to provide appropriate contract oversight.
Institutional Training
The Army Logistics University and
the Defense Acquisition University
are primarily responsible for providing COR training and certification
through various resident, online, and
mobile team training venues. The COR
may enroll and attend courses offered
by the Army Logistics University and
the Defense Acquisition University.
The courses are tailored to the
complexity and magnitude of the
performance work statement or contract. Based on mission analysis and
contract oversight requirements, requiring activity leaders determine
the level of training CORs will
attend.
From a COR
adherence to the provisions of the
performance work statement (PWS).
However, the guidance outlined in
the PWS did not always meet the
real-time requirements. As a result,
the commander on the ground had
to make decisions and give guidance
beyond what was spelled out in the
PWS.
Letter of Technical Direction
Using a letter of technical direction
(LOTD), a COR can address issues
on the ground and make minor
changes that are within the scope of
the PWS or contract without violating the contractual agreements. The
LOTD process gave us (the other
CORs in my unit and me) the capability to make expedient administrative changes without accruing additional contract-related costs.
The LOTDs were vetted with the
contracting officer or administrative
contracting officer (ACO) and contractor. The contracting officer or
ACO had to approve each LOTD
prior to implementation. These ad-
ministrative changes allowed us to
modify the PWS quickly to fit the
situation on the ground.
Corrective Action Request
CORs can use the corrective action
request (CAR) process to influence
contractor performance. A CAR is
a formal request for a plan of action
to correct deficient contractor performance based on the performance
standards in the PWS.
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