Gulf Region District Is Adjusting Its Aegis Security Contract Requirements for Changes in Reconstruction Activities in Iraq

Abstract

Since May 2004, the Department of Defense (DoD) has had a series of contracts with Aegis Defense Services, Limited (Aegis), for private security and related services in Iraq. As of April 7, 2011, Aegis had received over $1 billion for its services. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), DoD's primary user of Aegis services in Iraq, is decreasing its reconstruction activities in Iraq as U.S. military forces plan to withdraw by the end of calendar year 2011. In January 2009, the Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction (SIGIR) issued a report on DoD's oversight of Aegis's performance on the largest active and completed contracts at the time. 1 SIGIR's objectives for this current report are to determine if and on what basis Aegis's contract services have been adjusted to reflect changes in USACE's reconstruction activities in Iraq. SIGIR found that the number of USACE's active projects in Iraq has declined and Aegis's security personnel services have also declined since our January 2009 report. Moreover, USACE's active projects and security personnel requirements are projected to decline much further by July 2011. USACE's Gulf Region District (GRD) 2 monitors the utilization of Aegis's security teams and provides Aegis with planning information from which Aegis can determine the number and composition of security personnel to satisfy GRD's requirements. Information provided by GRD includes the number of active projects GRD must monitor, how often GRD inspectors need to visit each project, the location of each project to be visited, and the duration of the projects. GRD monitors the utilization of contractor security teams to ensure contract requirements are adjusted to reflect changes in GRD's reconstruction activities. GRD's process for adjusting contract requirements appears reasonable and responsive to changes in reconstruction activities.