Contract Closeout Procedures The Surface Force Logistics Center, Medium Endurance Cutter Product Line (SFLC-MECPL: all future references will be sighted as SFLC-MEC) is the glue that is holding our cutters together; however, we are failing to meet adequate closeout times with current and prior year contracts. SFLC-MEC Purchasing Agents need more efficient closeout procedures for contracts. The biggest areas of weakness are: failure to closeout contracts, no standard in closeout procedures, and lack of awareness within upper management. This trend has cost the Coast Guard hundreds of thousands of dollars and cannot continue on future contracts.
The first area of weakness that Purchasing Agents are running into is with proper closeout procedures.
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There is no common ground or standard for GS and Contract employees to follow when closing out the books. The world Purchasing Agents at SFLC-MEC work in is fast paced, on a grand scale. They have multiple dry-dock contracts to set up, CASREP’s throughout the year to deal with, last minute changes to contracts, and contracts that last multiple years. As soon as they finish up one year, they are back at it all over again for the new fiscal year. It is almost impossible to keep up with the tasks at hand; especially when you add the issue of employees leaving for new jobs. Employees’ leaving with no immediate replacement is causing problems to emerged, such as, files being shuffled with no tracking of final placement, leading folders to sometimes get “lost” until the Open Obligation Validation Accountability (OOVA) Reports brings them back into question for closeout. Regardless of how extremely busy the office is, Purchase Agents still have an obligation to our vendors, ensuring payments are made in a timely a fashion, as well as, upholding the integrity of the Department Of Homeland Security and Coast Guard by being good stewards of funds, by making sure to close the books properly. One solution to the problem would be to create a set of standards for the Purchasing Agents, which would give them a dedicated time frame when all procurements must be closed out by, depending on the type of