USA Issues Contracts to Train Afghan Ministries
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If the allied strategy in Afghanistan really rests on the eventual ability of their central government to handle the lion’s share of the campaign against the Taliban and al-Qaeda, its government will have to be able to manage itself at an acceptable level of competence. Given the fact that the cost of equipping and maintaining Afghanistan’s defense forces is well beyond that government’s entire budget, its competence is equally important to foreign financial donors.
That very competence has been strongly questioned in recent years, with Afghanistan’s interior ministry and national police coming in for special criticism. Managing their quality is a difficult political problem, as the requirement of Afghan independence and the reality of the country’s culture and political actors collide. Then, too, the local approach can sometimes be the right approach, even if it seems strange or inefficient at first. That’s why locally-appropriate training programs at the management level, as well as the tactical level, must be part of any transition plan. Even as their ultimate effectiveness depends on the commitment and people in place among their trainees. To that end, L-3’s MPRI division has received a series of contracts:
Contracts and Key Events
July 9/10: L-3 Services, Inc’s MPRI division in Alexandria, VA receives a $7.3 million time-and-material contract, extending professional mentoring and training support services aimed at “reforming the Afghanistan Ministry of Defense and their subordinate organization, policies and procedures.”
Work will be performed in Alexandria, VA (99.9%), and Afghanistan (0.1%), with an estimated completion date of Sept 30/10. That certainly strikes us as an odd ratio, but what do we know?
One bid was solicited with one bid received by the US Army’s Research, Development & Engineering Command Contracting Center’s Aberdeen Contracting Division at Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD (W91CRB-05-D-0014).
May 3/10: L-3 Services, Inc’s MPRI division in Alexandria, VA received a $53 million time-and-material contract for “professional mentoring and training support services with reforming the Afghanistan Ministry of Defense and their subordinate organizations, policies, and procedures.”
Work is to be performed in Alexandria, VA with an estimated completion date of Oct 30/10. One bid was solicited with 1 bid received by the US Army’s Research Development & Engineering Command Contracting Center, Aberdeen Contracting Division in Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD (W91CRB-05-D-0014).
May 3/10: L-3 Services, Inc’s MPRI division in Alexandria, VA received a $32.2 million cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for “professional mentoring and training support services with reforming the Afghanistan Ministry of Interior and Afghan National Police, and their subordinate organizations, policies, and procedures.”
Work is to be performed in Alexandria, VA, with an estimated completion date of April 29/11. One bid was solicited with 1 bid received by the US Army’s Research Development & Engineering Command Contracting Center, Aberdeen Contracting Division in Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD (W91CRB-10-C-0100).
