Contract compliance – new program manager takes reins

  • Published
  • By Joe B. Wiles
  • 71st Flying Training Wing Public Affairs
VANCE AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  "We've got jets to fix and sorties to fly," said Chris Knowles, the new program manager for the CSC Applied Technologies LLC service contract at Vance. In the two weeks he has been on the job, life has been "work, sleep and going to the gym," he said. 

A retired Air Force colonel, Mr. Knowles spent the past three years as program manager for the CSC contract at Nellis AFB, Nev. "I joined CSC to write the proposal for the contract at Nellis and to run it when we won it," he said. "After it was going real good, it was time to come to Enid," Mr. Knowles said. "There is a lot of nice work going on here at Vance and it has an important mission. I'm happy to be here." 

With a background as logistics commander in both the Air Combat Command and the Air Mobility Command, Mr. Knowles is very familiar with taking care of aircraft as well as the support functions. As the program manager at Nellis AFB, he was responsible for all the back-shop maintenance for the jet aircraft flown there. 

"Just like at Nellis, we have a strategic objective at Vance and it is all about getting that done," he said. 

"My biggest resource is people and the talent they can bring to doing something," he said. Mr. Knowles sees that resource, the people, as what makes the CSC contract successful. "The hourly employee is the engine of this contract," he said. 
"Management is a support role. Sometimes people lose sight of that picture.

"I don't launch jets and I don't recover them. But I have to be sure that the people who do have the right training, tools and equipment to do the job safely and correctly," Mr. Knowles said. 

The Air Force is not a tough customer, he said. "I understand the requirements and I'm comfortable supporting them. The support contract is very specific in what we should be doing and how we should do it," he said. "If you live by the rules, it shouldn't be hard at all." 

And that is where Vance has some growing to do, according to Maj. Paul Davis, a member of Vance's Quality Assurance standardization and evaluation program - QAV. "The contract we bid is not the environment we live in now," he said. "We told industry what we needed in early 2006. The contract was awarded in April 2007. Things changed a lot in that year," he said. 

Sometimes those changes put the contract workers in an uncomfortable position. "At Vance, we're all home-grown," said Major Davis. "There are people in CSC and in civil service who spent 20 years in the Air Force before coming to work here. Everyone wants to see the mission accomplished successfully," he said. 

"However, it is a mistake for both the government and the contractor to be so focused on the mission that they don't ask if a particular task is part of the contract," Major Davis said. A task that is not part of the contract is called "out of scope." For the contract employee to do a job that is out of scope is actually illegal under contracting law, said Major Davis. 

Both Mr. Knowles and Major Davis want to make sure the phrase "That's not in the contract" isn't a shield against having to do work, but a notification that the contract needs adjustment. 

"I would not expect a worker to say, 'I'm not going to do that' and then stop," said Mr. Knowles. "I would expect the request to get moved up the levels of supervision to a manager who can say, 'maybe there is something here we should be doing,' and bring it to me." 

"Getting the contract modified can be a long process, but we've done it several times," said Major Davis. "The Air Force is in a constant transformation in how it does business." 

"The contract should be a dynamic document that responds to changing requirements," said Mr. Knowles. 

Contract compliance is an ongoing process that requires education for everyone, said Major Davis. "Everybody is a customer. For the job to get done right, and legally, we all need to know what to expect, and what is expected of us."