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KABUL PROVINCE, Afghanistan – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is paving the way for the future of Afghanistan by training Afghan small businesses and local national quality assurance representatives to take the reins on many construction projects.
Through the small business development program called Afghan First, USACE is mentoring Afghan small businesses in the process of bidding, taking on and successfully completing government construction projects in Afghanistan. Afghan First is similar to the small business development program in the U.S that assists small, disadvantaged businesses.
The lack of knowledge in the government bidding process and small businesses expressing the desire to work and be part of the reconstruction of Afghanistan led to the formation of Afghan First.
“Our goal is to build capacity,” said U.S Army Lt. Cmdr. Joel VanEssen, Kabul South Resident officer-in-charge, USACE. “Many [small businesses] have never worked for the Corps before. All of this is to build up their experience.”
The small businesses vary from 12 to 50 Afghans employees, said VanEssen. They typically consist of engineers and Afghans who have completed high school to run programs such as quality control and safety. When a construction project is granted, the small businesses often hire Afghans looking for work living in the area where the construction is taking place.
“It puts money into the community,” said VanEssen.
To be a part of the program, small businesses go through a multitude of interviews on their experience, equipment, capability, references, hiring practices and more. From there, they are matched up with comparable, small, government construction projects for bidding and are mentored through the process.
Once awarded a contract, the mentoring continues through another program USACE developed for local national quality assurance representatives. USACE has a formalized, yearlong program that trains local nationals with construction experience or who have degrees in engineering to be mentors and quality assurance representatives for USACE.
The local-national QA representatives walk the small business employees through a construction project, coaching them through safety, design and many other processes necessary for successful construction, said VanEssen.
For training, the QA representatives meet monthly, alternating between meetings with all 42 members and smaller breakout sessions of approximately 10 people each. Topics covered range greatly from projecting needs to construction safety issues.
Afghan QA representatives, many of whom have years of experience, have found the training valuable.
“I appreciate the sharing of knowledge and training the meetings provide,” said Mohammad Qaseem, a local national QA representative.
As the small businesses complete their projects under the guidance of USACE, they receive ratings. These ratings are then taken into account when they apply for future projects.
Therefore it is important for them to do the projects properly and within standards, so they receive good ratings and are able to take on larger, more expensive projects in the future, explained VanEssen.
The QA representatives are crucial to this process, mentoring the small business employees throughout their project, said VanEssen.
The local-national QA representatives are the future of Afghanistan. Once USACE transitions out of Afghanistan, they will be in charge, said VanEssen.
“You can’t rebuild after a war without engineers,” said VanEssen.
The USACE’s motto is “building strong.” This mission exemplifies that motto by building a strong corps of Afghan engineers and construction businesses ready to build Afghanistan’s future.
| Date Taken: | 12.27.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 01.07.2011 01:41 |
| Story ID: | 63159 |
| Location: | KABUL, AF |
| Web Views: | 66 |
| Downloads: | 1 |
This work, USACE equip Afghan small businesses and QA reps with tools to rebuild Afghanistan, by SSgt Stacey Haga, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
