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Qalat PRT hosts its first vendor fair

  • Published
  • By Capt. Kevin Tuttle
  • Qalat Provincial Reconstruction Team
QALAT, Afghanistan --  More than 40 contractors from Zabul Province attended the first vendor fair at the Qalat Provincial Reconstruction Team on Nov. 26 in an effort to promote the availability of services and opportunities to both new and established contractors in the region.

The event, hosted by the Regional Contracting Center, based out of Kandahar Airfield, and PRT officials was organized with the intent to reach new contractors in Zabul.

Army Maj. Michael Scuteri, KAF RCC deputy chief, explained that current vendors had the opportunity to ask questions about future contracts, payment and procedures on how to obtain new contracts.

Scuteri, from Morris, Ill., stationed at Ft. Drum, N.Y., expressed that another benefit of developing a relationship with local vendors is allowing them to hire local workers, which improves the job situation in the city.

One of the RCC's objectives is to put an end to the multi-level subcontractor arrangements and instead award contracts to local vendors who can benefit from doing business with Coalition forces.

"We want to promote your business," Scuteri said to the attendees. "By doing business as a team, we will have a consolidated effort to improve security in Zabul Province."

Also from the KAF RCC office was Air Force Capt. Aine Akeley, services and commodities chief, who had the opportunity to interact with local vendors.

"The goal was to give the locals hope that their city can improve by working with U.S. and Coalition Forces, so we can expand the vendor base in Zabul Province and as a result have a positive socioeconomic effect," said Akeley, whose home station is Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif.

"They're very responsive and eager to work with us. We wanted to give them information to be successful when conducting business with the government."

A Ghazni province supplier, who has been in the contracting business for 18 months, attended the fair in hopes to obtain more contracts. "I like to support my country and earn money, too," said Hikmat, an 18-year-old vendor from Qalat. "But I want to learn more about contracting. I'm pretty sure I'm going to help get supplies in the future."

Air Force Capt. Rockie Wilson, Qalat PRT engineer, said another goal was to educate contractors on how to properly submit a proposal, in addition to creating a database of contractors.

"We need to know whether they deal in commodities, services or construction. Then we have a repository for future reference. We're also trying to identify vendors and contractors inherent to Qalat. It's cheaper and timelier to get it here in Qalat and we're trying to see if that possibility exists," explained Wilson, who is deployed from Langley AFB, Va.

Hamamuoon, 20, who recently started his own contracting business expressed that making Afghanistan a better place to live is what drives him toward this line of work. He said that the vendor fair was helpful to him because know he knows what to do to get more contracts.

"I want to help build Afghanistan and make it a better country," said Hamamuoon, who currently has a contract to build wells at various police station check points.