An official website of the United States government
Here's how you know
A .mil website belongs to an official U.S. Department of Defense organization in the United States.
A lock (lock ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .mil website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

News | March 24, 2016

CENTCOM logisticians learn value of overseas industry vetting program

By Jason Kaneshiro DLA Troop Support Public Affairs

Two logisticians who support U.S. Central Command were briefed March 16 on the vetting process for DLA Troop Support’s overseas contracts.

 

William Sanders, CENTCOM director of contracting support, and met with each of DLA Troop Support’s five supply chains during the visit. He was joined by Michael Rector, DLA Joint Contingency Acquisition Support Office lead planner assigned to CENTCOM.

 

“We were interested in what is that network of contractors that you have, what are the contract structures and types that you have in place, and what type of vendor vetting capability do you have within the AOR,” Sanders said.

 

Vetting overseas contracts is conducted through DLA’s Industrial Base Extension Program, said Carolyn Shivers, a strategic sourcing specialist with the Construction and Equipment supply chain.  The program furnishes data from global logistics providers on a foreign country’s infrastructure, industry, cultural nuances and logistics capabilities to Department of Defense planners.

 

Information yielded through IBEX allowed for advance logistics planning for overseas locations and enabled a rapid U.S. response to global incidents, including the 2010 earthquake in Haiti and Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines in 2013, Shivers said.

 

As a JCASO planner, Rector said that he has to consider the commercial business environment in the countries within CENTCOM’s AOR and that vendor vetting through IBEX was of great interest to him.

“I really think it has a lot of capability, not just for CENTCOM but throughout DOD,” Rector said.

The JCASO program provides contract support for the DOD and other federal agencies. Two JCASO personnel are assigned to each unified combatant command to coordinate support for planning, exercises, training and deployments.

Rector added that every combatant command is now required to have the capability to vet their vendors and that the work Shivers does through the IBEX program could be the spearhead for the rest of the DOD.

“That capability is absolutely phenomenal and I see that the potential for it is enormous,” Rector said