 U.S. Military
The Aug. 12, 2008, event presented the contract acquisition process for obtaining a construction contract with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the JCCI-RCC Basrah, said Army Maj. Daniel George, a PRT engineer from the Gulf Region Division, Gulf Region South district (GRS). About 95 Iraqi contractors representing more than 75 companies from Basrah Province were given information to help them understand the contracting process used to award new projects that will provide services to the Iraqi people. "We welcome you to the first, but not the last, business development conference," said Chief of Contracting Lt. Col. James Bamburg from the Army Basrah Joint Regional Contracting Center. He also thanked Engineer Abdul Ameer, Basrah Airport director, for use of the facility for the one-day conference. "The aim of the one-day business development conference was to provide contract registration training to local Iraqi contractors and teach them how to access business opportunities that are offered by JCCI-RCC Basrah and GRS. Also provided in the presentation were how to prepare responses to solicitations and how the proposals are evaluated," Bamburg said. "There is a clear difference in the quality of proposals from contractors that receive this type of training versus contractors that have not had training, the contractors and the proposals also become competitive." He explained that the training clearly makes the Iraqi business owners and managers effective leaders both within their respective industries and their communities. The contracting actions that they participate in have very strong, positive impacts for the Iraqi population and economy, Bamburg said. Al Baraa Technical Company Director in Basrah Province, Ali Al-Baghdadi said, "I consider today's conference one of the most important events. There were lots of mistakes made in our previous proposals that we didn't know about. Now we are able to avoid those mistakes and compete to win more projects to help build the future of our country." Ali Khreeb, a representative of Al Sairafi Company for General Construction said, "we got very useful and valuable guidance that will help us make successful proposals." George said it is very important that contractors understand the process and how USACE evaluates proposals based on technical abilities and past performance; what they have done and how well they did it. He also said USACE wants to make sure that contractors understand how they are being evaluated. "So they give us all the documentation we need for a successful evaluation," George said. He explained that teaching local contractors how to bid on U.S. contracts--improving their ability to successfully obtain work--should increase employment in the local community. ""Basrah Area Office has 35 active projects and several projects coming available in the next several months," George said. "In addition JCCI-RCC Basrah will have 40 to 70 smaller contracts in the next three weeks that will permit new companies excellent opportunities to gain experience." Note: A. Al Bahrani is the public affairs officer for the Gulf Region South District, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Iraq. ADDITIONAL PHOTOS:
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