By Capt. Kelly Parker
35th Engineer Brigade Staff Judge Advocate
CAMP LIBERTY, Iraq – Three Soldiers from the Missouri National Guard have a daunting task – it is one of fiscal responsibility – as the team conducts its day-to-day operations with the 35th Engineer Brigade's budget section; their task is making sure that funds used to finance contracts and pay Iraqi workers is money well spent.
Housed in Saddam Hussein's former hunting lodge, a building the troops call the "Goat House," the budget section is responsible for overseeing contracts. With eight different contracts for concrete T-wall barriers, seven contracts for services that include copier and air conditioner maintenance, crane lease contracts, local national worker employment contracts, and other miscellaneous contracts, their mission is no small task by any stretch of the imagination.
"We have overseen more than $4 million paid out to vendors so far, and that is only one month," said Lt. Col. Robert Jones, of Jackson, Mo., who heads the section. In civilian life, Jones, who has 32 years of military service, is Do-It-Best Corporation's lead man in shipping. Now, he is a Soldier responsible for ensuring our tax dollars are well spent while, at the same time, introducing a level fiscal accountability that didn't exist under the Hussein regime.
As soon as they arrived in Baghdad in September, near the end of the fiscal year, the team had to pick up a considerably heavy workload.
"In the budget world, (October) is a unique and challenging time," said Chief Warrant Officer 3 Chris Schill, of Jefferson City, Mo. "It's the busiest time of year for the budget section. We had to pick up in the middle of the prior contracts."
Schill, a full-time active guard and Reserve Soldier with more than 20 years of military experience, is the section's budget analyst. Like Jones, Schill has brought considerable knowledge to Iraq with him, but said he is always learning more.
"Because it is different from what I do full-time, there's been a learning curve for me also," Schill said.
Sgt. Sayanara Soth, of St. Robert, Mo., is the team's finance specialist and has five years of military experience. Like Schill, she is a full-time Soldier. Before being deployed, she served as an administrative and human resource specialist at Fort Leonard Wood, Mo. Her mission includes working on the badge process for Iraqi workers. For those workers, the simple act of going into work in the morning requires an incredible amount of bravery.
"The local national workers have great difficulty just getting to work," Schill said. "They live outside the wire. It is dangerous for them just to come to work. They put their lives on the line every day because the anti-Iraqi forces target them."
| Date Taken: | 03.13.2008 |
| Date Posted: | 03.13.2008 08:29 |
| Story ID: | 17317 |
| Location: | BAGHDAD, IQ |
| Web Views: | 227 |
| Downloads: | 200 |
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