U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) Gulf Region Division (GRD), a Multi-National Force-Iraq major subordinate command, provides quality, sustainable, responsive, and full-spectrum engineering in support of civil/military construction in Iraq and is committed to assisting the Iraqi government assume full responsibility for national infrastructure. The GRD consolidated the Iraq Provisional Command, Task Force (TF) Restore Iraqi Electricity, TF Restore Iraqi Oil, and various forward engineer support teams. Today, GRD headquarters and its three geographically dispersed district offices (Gulf Region District-North [GRN], Gulf Region District-South [GRS], Gulf Region District-Central [GRC]) along with its various field offices continue to provide full-spectrum engineering support across the Iraqi theater of operations.

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Business Process

Funding

In the USACE, customers fund project costs. While the headquarters and division offices receive congressional appropriations (like other Army commands), USACE district and field offices are self-supporting. Districts and field offices must recover their costs, both direct and indirect (to include training, human resources, and resource management), by charging their customers for projects they perform on a reimbursable, full-cost recovery basis. As government entities, districts do not make a profit. Instead, they use fully-burdened labor accounting, similar to working capital fund organizations.

Global War on Terrorism, Operations and Maintenance, Army (OMA) funds GRD headquarters' elements; however, the customers they support fund GRN, GRS, and GRC.

Engineering Regulation (ER) 5-1-11, Management: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Business Process, establishes philosophy, policy, and guidelines to accomplish all work performed by the USACE. ER 415-1-16, Fiscal Management of Construction, establishes the policies and procedures used in the financial management of the construction functions within the project management business process.

Construction supervision and administration

Construction supervision and administration (S&A) represents activities performed and costs incurred that are considered government construction, contract management responsibilities.

USACE provides construction management services for a wide variety of projects. These services are charged to and financed by the individual project by applying a construction S&A charge.

For Department of Defense construction support, the USACE charges a flat rate S&A charge that conforms to the general type (operations and maintenance or military construction [MILCON]) and project location (continental U.S. [CONUS] or outside CONUS). USACE charges non-military customers and some special military projects on a cost-reimbursable basis determined by a mutually agreed upon level of effort. Table 17-1 is a list of rates applicable to GRD in the Iraqi theater of operations.

Table 17-1

Construction Project Phases

There are three phases to a construction project:

• Planning and design (P&D).
• Construction.
• Operations and maintenance.

See ER 415-1-16 for a list of activities that are a part of each phase. Fund each phase of the project separately as described below:

Planning and design

P&D activities are performed prior to the award of a construction contract and are considered a function of the construction technical/functional element. USACE planners should identify P&D in the project management plan and calculate its cost separately from the S&A rate applied to the construction project. The receipt and use of P&D funds may not be specific to any particular project, funding stream, or appropriation; however, the USACE normally funds P&D separately for this phase of the project or potential project. USACE personnel perform P&D work at actual cost; however, they can use a percentage or other factor as an initial budgeting and planning tool with upward or downward adjustments as the services progress.

Construction

Construction costs include all construction activities performed to produce a complete and usable facility or a complete and usable improvement to an existing facility. The construction cost must include the S&A rate. Design activities required during construction are not chargeable to S&A. USACE planners should request appropriate P&D funds to include design review. The S&A is included in the construction cost when determining the project threshold.

Operations and maintenance

This phase covers the post-construction work if there is a requirement for continued project maintenance. The funding for operations and maintenance is separate from the two phases described above and is for expenses necessary for the preservation, operation, maintenance, and care of existing qualifying projects and related work.

Funding for Customer Requests for Services

Funding to support customer projects comes to GRD by way of funding authorization documents, military interdepartmental purchase requests, regular memorandums of agreement with other federal agencies, 632(a) and 632(b) agreements (with the Department of State), and advance wire transfers of funds.

USACE and GRD must receive funding to perform activities in advance of a fully-defined scope of work or to perform activities for projects including those that may be subsequently cancelled or not funded. By law, GRD is not permitted to perform work in advance of the receipt of funds. To do so could result in Anti-deficiency Act violations. GRD works very closely with customers to reduce reaction time to begin providing responsive support to customers.