BAGRAM AIR FIELD, Afghanistan – On July 26, the Defense Logistics Agency continued its release of excess, useable U.S. government property sold to Afghan companies, known as white goods, for use in the local economy. DLA is responsible for the disposition of excess property received from the military services.
DLA has conducted eight releases to Afghan companies in the last month, including the most recent at Bagram and Kandahar Airfield.
The property transferred here includes excess wood, which is critical to the local economy as commercial timber harvesting is illegal in Afghanistan.
“Today we have a release of about $350,000 worth of mostly wood. First will be a truckload of insulation for building, a lot of woodworking equipment, drills, table saws and 10 trucks of plywood and other lumber,” said DLA sales contracting officer Ron Williams.
DLA’s release June 26 at Bagram Air Field was the template for the excess property releases across Afghanistan. The agency decided to emphasize communication at the beginning of the process so that it becomes routine as buyers execute repeated transactions.
“The lesson we’ve learned so far is to have as much communication as possible between Afghan customs, the buyer and the site that is releasing. It is always nice that everyone always has the same information so the buyer knows exactly where to go,” said Williams. “We have a good partnership with Afghan customs. We are repeatedly sending them emails, asking on progress, checking on details, asking the buyers: what’s going on, have you made it through customs yet?”
“We’re definitely doing a lot of communication so that they understand that we are being very above board, that Afghan customs is being fully engaged and this is a process that we really worked on,” said Williams.
DLA has recognized multiple benefits from selling excess property instead of disposing of it in another manner, such as scrapping.
“The good thing about this is we are being good stewards of taxpayer dollars because we are getting more money for the property than if we had to divest it, we’re stimulating the Afghan economy by being able to push items into their marketplace that maybe weren’t readily available, and we’re generating tremendous goodwill,” said Williams.
Williams sees the white goods sales as successful, especially since DLA anticipates more property becoming available as the International Security Assistance Force transitions to the Resolute Support Mission.
“The goodwill is the largest part of it,” said Williams. “The initiative is not specifically designed to make money; it is designed to promote goodwill and to stimulate economic development, to generate a good business relationship so that as we start getting more and more property, as we get closer to this transition, we can move property out the gate without scrapping it.”