The Evolving Contingency Contracting Market PKSOI Papers | Page 17

Peacekeeping training centers have tried to address this issue, yet private firms benefit from such
experience in the form of accrued past performance
that helps them to win future contracts, thus creating
a strong internal incentive to preserve such knowledge or to employ personnel that bring that knowledge with them. As a senior Contracting Official for
procurement in Afghanistan remarked, “There is no
collated product of lessons learned or best practices
for guys who are about to deploy [and have no idea
what they’re about to undertake].”16
As one retired US military official observed, “Civilians who stay long enough see the carousel go
around and around and around.”17 USG personnel
who deploy to or oversee work in complex environments tend to see a lot of “recreating the wheel,” and
a marked lack of continuity. Consistency is the most
crucial aspect of many of these types of efforts, and the
single thing that can be done to improve performance
is to improve consistency. “People are looked down
upon for being contractors, but contractors have the
most continuity. That’s not a plug, it’s a fact. They can
choose to stay.” Choices on personnel rotation and
turnover, especially within USG entities, are the major
enemy of continuity, which creates inconsistency and,
often, failure.18
Successful peacekeeping missions necessitate
more than the mere cessation of violence and must include the beginning of the rebuilding of communities.
The inclusion of contingency contractors into stability
operations in complex environments introduces vast
reconstruction advantages that are not possible during military-only operations, notably including the
use of fewer employees coupled with the empowerment of locals through training programs. In addition

10