Apparently TENG Associates has been award a US Army Corp of Engineers (USACE) contract to perform independent electrical inspections in Afghanistan. TENG will be supplying electrical inspectors to inspect for Task Force POWER.
Below is an excerpt from the Department of Defense Inspector General Report dated July 24, 2009.
On June 29, 2009, CENTCOM stated that Task Force POWER continues their comprehensive inspection of existing facilities. The initial inspection team includes an organization of 116 personnel (including eight engineers, three master electricians, 72 subject matter experts/electrical inspectors, and 33 support personnel). After the initial inspection is complete, these personnel will transform into the continued inspection staff of 42 personnel. Once initial inspections are completed and results analyzed, requirements for funding, materials, and manpower will be requested.
This meter is reading 231 VAC from the water supply line of a small bathroom water heater to ground. That will clearly kill you in the shower! This is a 240/400 VAC system in Iraq
If I recall correctly KBR started performing inspections for Task Force POWER earlier this year. If that’s not a classic example of the “fox watchin’ the hen house” I don’t know what is!
TENG and Task Force POWER will be the Afghanistan counterpart to Stanley Baker Hill (SBH) and Task Force SAFE in Iraq. TENG is expected to start deploying inspectors to Afghanistan in January 2010.
I have known about this for a couple of weeks and have asked TENG for a statement but as of today, they haven’t responded.
As of yet I’m not sure who will be the driving force for Task Force POWER. I don’t know if the Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA) and USACE will have a structure similar to what they have in Iraq.
I do hope TENG will learn from the management mistakes made by SBH in Iraq and improve on them.
I have started “Task Force POWER” and “TENG & Assoc” categories. I will keep you posted as I learn more. If you have any information on Task Force POWER or TENG & Associates in Afghanistan let me know.
Ms Sparky
I am considering applying with AECOM for an electricians position in Afghanistan and would greatly appreciate corresponding with anyone working for them in Afghanistan.Thanks
Miss Sparky you have got to call someone about Teng in Astan. I have worked all over the world and this has to be the most effed up company I have ever worked for in my life. I didn’t work in Iraq so I can’t compare them to Task Force Safe which I heard was pretty well messed up. These guys Teng has here are idiots. They don’t have an effing clue what they are doing. What a waste of tax dollars and we are doing nothing to protect the soldiers from electrocution.
Just venting now. Not sure how much more of this BS I can take please send me the info for Task Force Safe in Iraq.
I’ve been getting quite a few complaints in the last month or so about Teng. Some from employees some from on-lookers. I was kind of hoping it was just start pains on Teng’s part and was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. But I’m thinking they are in way over their heads. That’s too bad.
Also isn’t it fraud to fill out time sheets and sign them in advance. When you go to work for Teng you get time sheets already filled out in advance till the end of June. How in the hell do they know what hours will be worked till the end of June. WTF! They are acting like this is their first effing government job anywhere!
Will send more later.
Well yes it is. The last I heard is you could not fill in your time sheet until the end of each shift. But that was for a cost reimbursable contract such as KBR’s. Does anyone know if Teng’s contract with USACE is a cost reimbursable or fixed price contract?
It does not matter what type of contract it is – filling out timesheets in advance is the samething as fraud. As soon as DCAA does a floor check and finds them doing this they will get busted.
DCAA Contract Audit Manual section 5.909 States the following f.
“Direct labor employees record their time no less often than daily.”
If you have DCAA contacts give them a heads up.
It does matter. If Teng is not being reimbursed for labor because it is a fixed bid contract and they are being paid a specific amount for a specific job then they won’t be submitting labor cost for reimbursement. I seriously doubt this is the case, but because I have not seen their contract yet I am not willing to completely rule it out. But….because I am willing to bet this is in fact a cost reimbursable contract……CALLING ALL DCAA to do a floor check on Teng in Afghanistan!
This is such a rookie mistake one has to wonder if this is their first government job.
Actually, the type of contract does not effect the way that time is to be recorded. Only the way the payments are made and the amount of detail that is submitted with that invoice.
All contractors – and TENG has had US Government contracts since 1992 that I have found – must have a COMPLIANT time keeping systems. This includes as stated in the DCAA Audit Manual and quoted above ‘Direct Labor employee record their time NO LESS OFTEN than daily.’ The definition of a Direct Labor Employee is any employee whos time is charged to one or more Government Contracts (note it does not say Cost Reimbursable Government Contracts).
Additionally, contractor can not have multiple time charging processes – especially if they have multiple contracts.They must have ONE consistent process to record all time. Contractors under go required annual audits – there time charging system is one of them. “The primary objective of a labor cost charging and allocation evaluation is to determine the accuracy of contractor employee (salaried and hourly) labor hour charges to contracts, indirect accounts, or other cost objectives” DCAA Contract Audit Manual Chapter 6. A fixed price contract is definately a cost objective.
There are many potentials for fraud here. As neither of us has seen the contract – (I was unable to even find a copy of the soliciation for this contract.) The contract may actually require a minimum number of inspectors be on site. By collecting these time sheets in advance they could say oh we had them see. As you previously reported Blackwater is having to pay the Government back for Over charging on one of their FFP DOS contracts because they could not prove that they actually had the minimum number of staff required on site.
Or suppose one of these employees is transfered to another project – or even to an indirect position – but is still being paid on the Time Sheets that were submitted in advance. This would result in the costs being recorded against the wrong cost objective or even worse – they could fill out another set of time sheets and the costs could potentially even show up twice – even though he was only paid once.
I worked as an Inspector for Task Force Safe and I would be interested in working for Teng as an inspector for Task Force Power and get the job done correctly. But I cant find any info on any positions, I have contacted HR dept but have had nothing back.
With my experience you would think they would be interested I have seen all the horrors and know the fixes
I commend you for wanting to make a difference in A-stan, but I recommend you stay with TFS as long as you can. Teng is reportedly very very very unorganized in Afghanistan, there is no medical insurance, the wages are significantly less and you sleep in a 200 man tent with TCN’s.
One would think with your TFS experience they would just snatch you right up. But, the simple fact that you work for TFS now could be the problem. You could be too experienced and knowledgeable about how things are done. That seems to be a point of contention.
TFS and TFP good luck, what you guys are trying to do is convince a race car driver into changing a flat while still driving on the autobahn.
I think we all know Afghanistan is not Kansas. The middle east and south central asia are not exactly the easiest place to operate. Those who are used to KBR and Fluor style operations with radio, networks and running water (more or less) waiting for you when you show up in theater should ask around about how hard it was to build the camps everybody thinks are so shabby. Teng, and all the other new kids on the block are all rookies to the remote deployed locations compared to the people who actually built those camps. The learning curve is going to be steep and some are going to fail. The proof of the pudding is in the eating; and believe me these companies may have won a lot of contracts but some of these new guys and girls have no clue what it takes to stay there and get it done.
Second, the Quality Assurance and Construction Inspection functions that should be performed by the Gov is being performed by Contractors. Hiring contractors to monitor contractors is that any different than the so called internal controls required by the Prime contractors? We all see how that worked out. Oh wait that’s how we got to the present electrical nightmare (sarcasm). What a mess…
Teng is more than disorganized, they have proven to be utterly incompetent in getting the project off the ground. Signing on with Teng has proven to be a very expensive mistake on my part.
I am very sorry to hear that. I know we desperately need the expertise of our best electrical inspectors in Afghanistan. I’ve gotten nothing but complaints from TENG inspectors. Where is USACE in all this? Can they not see there is a huge problem?
If you can provide any accurate specifics that won’t point the finger at you and jeopardize your job (if you are still there) would be great. Go ahead and name names. These companies have a knack for hiding the issues from the client and then telling them “Everything is A-OK! We are right on schedule!”