Courtesy Photo | Michaella Olson (left), a Defense Logistics Agency contingency contracting officer,...... read more read more
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MONROVIA, Liberia - Michaella Olson received the phone call at 10 a.m. Less than 30 hours later, the Defense Logistics Agency contingency contracting officer was on a plane headed to Monrovia, Liberia, to support Operation United Assistance.
The operation, a U.S. Agency for International Development-led humanitarian effort to contain the spread of the Ebola virus in West Africa, is being supported by the military’s U.S. Africa Command, as well as other support organizations like DLA. Olson, a member of DLA Logistics Operations’ Joint Contingency Acquisition Support Office at Fort Belvoir, Virginia, is one of almost 40 DLA employees on the ground in West Africa.
Since arriving in Monrovia Sept. 22, Olson has helped synchronize operational contract support with the Army’s 414th Contracting Support Brigade. During the last days of September, the brigade’s Overseas Humanitarian, Disaster and Civic Aid funding was delayed, which caused a delay in operations, she said.
“As a warranted contracting officer, I was able to work quickly because we had working capital funds to start some of the critical site preparations for building Ebola treatment units and opening the area of operations,” she said. “It was such a morale booster.”
Although her primary mission is to execute contracts, it’s not as simple as it sounds, especially supporting the Army engineers who are preparing to build Ebola treatment units, she said.
“I write contracts, check on the status of projects, conduct site surveys, field concerns about any of the contractors that I’ve hired and interact with customers,” she said. “My main customers are the engineers who are going out there and prepping the sites to build ETUs. I’m partnering with DLA Troop Support to purchase the building materials for them, and lease heavy machinery to clear sites, so DLA has a stamp on pretty much everything that’s going up here. I have a local phone and a BlackBerry, and they’re both going off constantly.”
Olson was also able to assist the Air Force when a recent dispute escalated with the only vendor of porta-potties for an airfield in Liberia. With talks at a standstill and the vendor threatening to suspend all operations, Olson requested a face-to-face meeting at the vendor’s house.
“I sat down with her and asked, ‘What are your concerns?’” she said. “And she was concerned about catching Ebola from cleaning these portable toilets. And I can appreciate and understand that. She just wanted to know that no one else would use them besides our service members who are working at the airfield all day and not interacting with the local nationals. So I had some signs printed off, ‘Just for U.S. Service Members,’ we put them on the portable toilets, and the Air Force put the toilets closer to the area they were working in. And she was very happy and agreed to let us lease the porta-potties. We’ve had exceptional service from this vendor. She’s proud to support our mission to help her family and friends here.”
In between her contracting responsibilities, Olson also works with DLA Europe & Africa’s local procurement initiative team in an effort to find more local sources of supply. She assisted the team, headquartered in Germany, on two business development sessions in Niger and Djibouti before the Ebola outbreak occurred, she said.
“We hosted the business development events because we wanted to bring some transparency to U.S. government contracting, and that message was well received by the local business owners,” she said. “There are a lot of contractors that are interested in being able to bid on some of the solicitations that we have, and they have a lot of questions. They’re not familiar with our standards. So we’re partnering with the host nations in order to do this, and that speaks volumes for our organization.”
Working with DLA Europe and Africa, the U.S. Embassy’s economic officers, and the host country’s Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Olson coordinated the first Liberian business development forum in Monrovia, Oct. 17.
“It’s important to locally source as much as possible,” DLA Director Navy Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek said at a recent event. “The Business Development Forum we hosted in Monrovia saw more than 300 vendors attend. That’s huge, and that makes it easier to get stuff where we need it quickly.”
With Olson taking care of matters on the tactical side, two five-person JCASO mission support teams are assisting with more strategic matters, said David Koch, JCASO deputy executive director.
“The first team we launched out is in Vicenza, Italy, with [U.S. Army Africa],” he said. “They’re helping to pull in all the contracting requirements that are in Africa and vet those requirements through the combatant command. This helps to make sure that we don’t have government organizations competing against each other for the same local vendors and inadvertently driving up the cost of goods and services. We also sent a team out to Stuttgart, Germany, to help USAFRICOM set up processes for operational contract support, which provides the joint force commander visibility over all contracts and contractors operating in West Africa.”
As Operation United Assistance continues, other contracting entities will become more robust, Olson said, relieving her to be ready for the next operational need.
“I’m staying until my mission is complete down here, but DLA will definitely have a role in this for the foreseeable future with our DLA Distribution capabilities and with DLA Energy for fuel. This is the first time that DLA has sent a DLA contingency contracting officer from JCASO, so we’re really pioneers and setting the bar high for future engagements. Hopefully we’ll get requests in the future to come out and support because of the job that we’ve been doing here on the ground.”
| Date Taken: | 10.27.2014 |
| Date Posted: | 10.29.2014 09:52 |
| Story ID: | 146426 |
| Location: | MONROVIA, LR |
| Web Views: | 362 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, DLA contracting team member supports anti-Ebola efforts, by Amanda Neumann, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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