Contractor Accord

While a status-of-forces agreement between Washington and Baghdad remains in abeyance, U.S. senior administration officials wrapped up a lesser-known, internal accord this summer that governs contractor activities in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The No. 2 officials from the Defense and State departments and the U.S. Agency for International Development inked a memorandum of understanding in early July, vowing to use a single database for keeping track of government contractors working in the two countries.

Defense officials began work on the database, called Synchronized Pre-deployment and Operational Tracker and managed by the Defense Department, some years ago with the idea of gaining a better understanding of how many contractors the military has working in war zones, where these workers are located, and what they are up to.

Pentagon acquisition chief John Young, since taking office last year, has encouraged increased of the system.

With State and USAID now also using the database, the quality of data about the large amount of government contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan should improve, Government Accountability Office auditors wrote in a report earlier this month.

According to the MOU, the three agencies will work quickly to close what sounds like a loophole in the existing regulations mandating the registration of data on hired security guards.

“The parties agree, as soon as practicable, to expand the common database to include information on those entities performing private security functions under major grants, including contracts under grants and cooperative agreements under which assistance is provided in Iraq and Afghanistan,” the document reads.