USAF OKs local agreements

The Air Force is starting to use more local government agencies to perform a wide variety of base maintenance tasks.

The program has raised concerns that small contractors may lose opportunities for such work.

Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James signed a policy directive in July to create the Air Force Community Partnership Initiative.

The goal is to save money by forging cooperative agreements with their local and state governments to provide some services to the bases.

Section 331 of the defense authorization law of fiscal 2013 allows military agencies to enter into sole-source intergovernmental base support agreements with state and local governments.

Steven Zander, Air Force partnership program director, recently outlined more than a dozen base support areas ripe for such agreements, including food service, operations and maintenance and training.

There already are 16 agreements in place, including Tinker Air Force base in Oklahoma using city jails for military inmates. Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland is using county landfills for its trash.

But small business advocates have raised concerns that the cooperative agreements with local governments are likely to negatively affect contractors who otherwise might have done the work.

More information: Zander presentation http://www.dtic.mil/ndia/2014logistics/Zander.pdf

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