Filling Out the Ranks In Iraq

Brad Freeman, a manager at the Defense Contract Management Agency, liked his most recent assignment. The work was challenging and his employees rose to the task. He brushes off questions about his safety and has volunteered for two six-month deployments in the Middle East since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks-one in Qatar and one in Iraq.

DCMA needs more workers and managers like Freeman to monitor the billions of dollars in military support contracts in Iraq. In fact, when Freeman returned in August from his last tour overseas, Connie Short, director of DCMA's combat support center in Alexandria, Va., asked only half jokingly, "Can't you go back?"

Fighting wars on multiple fronts is taking a toll on DCMA's civilian workers. Charged with overseeing Defense contracts worldwide, the agency has watched as demand for its workers in war zones rises as troops stay longer than expected. Contractors have taken on more tasks, from cooking meals to assisting in prisoner interrogations. DCMA increasingly is finding that its employees, like military personnel, are overdeployed, and officials worry about how long current staffers will stay at the 11,000-person agency.

DCMA has 83 employees and service members deployed overseas, including 37 civilians in Afghanistan, Iraq and the Balkans. A year ago, the agency had only about 40 staffers, military and civilian, serving in global hot spots. More civilians will be sent to Iraq as they are shifted into positions formerly held by military personnel and the agency adds contract overseers. "We never anticipated the troop strength in Iraq," says Freeman, who runs DCMA's international district from his Alexandria office. Officials expected to support about 80,000 soldiers and oversee 40,000 contract employees in postwar Iraq, he says. Now the agency finds itself supporting nearly double that number of troops.

DCMA launched an effort in June to hire 200 more people during the next year. One condition of their employment would be deployment overseas, most likely to Iraq, for up to six months within 90 days of being hired. Until now, DCMA has sent employees abroad on a voluntary basis.

The agency's role overseas likely will increase as Defense hires more service contractors to free up military personnel to fight. In fiscal 2003, services contracting giant Halliburton became one of Defense's 10 largest contractors as its awards rose to more than $3 billion, from $491 million in the previous year, largely due to work in Iraq.

DCMA initially relied on military personnel to monitor contracts in Iraq, Short says, but as the mission has been extended, civilians are being asked to fill many of the agency's positions there. Air Force Col. Jamie Adams, DCMA's chief of staff, says a lack of civilians has strained the agency's 500 service members who have served multiple tours in Iraq. Of the 40 DCMA positions in Iraq, about half are military. This summer, service members were sent back for six-month tours within three months of returning home.

Kathy Greenlaw, a human resources specialist at DCMA, says the agency wants to hire people with experience in contract and property management-such as contract administrators, quality assurance specialists, industrial property management specialists and industrial specialists-into GS-11 and GS-12 jobs.

Salaries of new hires would increase by as much as 50 percent while overseas because of extra pay for hazardous duty and service in a foreign country. Employees also would be promoted to the next grade level during deployment due to their increased responsibilities.

Meanwhile, Freeman says a shortage of employees overseas could create a separate set of problems. Without DCMA oversight, he says, contractors have little incentive to keep costs down because troops are always eager for more services.