New Contract Award

[Biff]

From: http://www.defense.gov/contracts/contract.aspx?contractid=4547 (http://www.defense.gov/contracts/contract.aspx?contractid=4547)

FOR RELEASE AT
5 p.m. ET No. 464-11
June 01, 2011

DynCorp International, LLC, Falls Church, Va., was awarded on May 26 a $15,820,593 cost-plus-fixed-fee contract. The award will provide for the option of an existing contract for training and mentoring services to the Afghanistan Ministry of Defense. Work will be performed throughout Afghanistan, with an estimated completion date of Dec. 31, 2012. The bid was solicited through the Internet, with five bid received. The U.S. Army Contracting Command, Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md., is the contracting activity (W91CRB-10-C-0030).

DynCorp might be hiring...

[Ryan Acuff]

The word I heard was that they cut the pay and the leave that they were previously offering. I'm talking specifically about the CivPol/Int'l Police Adviser jobs for the ANP or AUP, whatever they call the police now.

I was in high hopes that Xe or MPRI was going to get the contract when the Afghan CivPol job changed hands from DoS to DoD.

Unfortunately, they didn't.

[Shdwdncr]

The word I heard was that they cut the pay and the leave that they were previously offering. I'm talking specifically about the CivPol/Int'l Police Adviser jobs for the ANP or AUP, whatever they call the police now.
I've heard the same thing. And many people are jumping ship because of it.


I was in high hopes that Xe or MPRI was going to get the contract when the Afghan CivPol job changed hands from DoS to DoD.

Unfortunately, they didn't.
Still, MPRI has numerous positions open throughout the country in many different fields.

S.

[Hired gun]

DynCorp did cut the pay and leave. However, since their was a mass exodus of personnel they eventually raised the pay. Current pay is 144K to 187K a year with two weeks of leave. It is a corporation and the bottom line is the bottom line. Their view is that they will always have people to fill slots since the majority of the cops come from the southeast part of America where pay averages in the low to mid 20's. KBR maybe the "white trash" contractors of the contracting world, However DynCorp is a half step above them.

[mdwest]

KBR maybe the "white trash" contractors of the contracting world, However DynCorp is a half step above them.

thats really a matter of perspective..

you dont get as big as Dyn without having a certain number people being dissatisfied.. you cant please tens of thousands of "contractors".. someone is always going to think the grass is greener elsewhere or that some other company treats you better, pays better, etc..

at the end of the day it really depends on what contract you are supporting, who the customer is, who the managers are, etc.. every contract is different.. and the end results are usually different as well..

I know ALOT of people that think Dyn sucks..

I also know ALOT of people that would never work anywhere else and think that Dyn hung the moon..

Its also important to note that unlike MANY of the companies that pursue LEO and Security work in austere environments exclusively.. that this is only one market that Dyn plays in.. they are also HUGE providers of aviation support services, logisitics services, construction services, intelligence services, infrastructure development services, and project/program management services to NUMEROUS divisions of the US Government (DOS, DOD, DHS, DOJ, etc..etc..)... and that they are considered premium providers of services in many of these areas (very high pricing, and very high wages.. to support a service that they sell to the government as extreme high quality by comparrison to their peers)..

the people that work for them on the aviation side of the house that i know for example.. are among the happiest people i have met in the industry.. (and its awfully hard to find anyone that is "happy" working in Sudan, Somolia, etc..)

[Hired gun]

mdwest,
As usual you are correct. It is a matter of perspective.
The cops I have talked to that were in Iraq and Afghanistan under dyn contracts have said that the Iraq contract was managed much better than Afghanistan. All companies have their good and bad points. In the corporate contracting world it is about management and Not leadership. The horror stories regarding the management and the guys in the field in Afghanistan just continue to go on and on.

[mdwest]

If we are talking A'stan exclusively.. I can attest that the majority of the people I know that have worked both PSD and CivPol assignments for Dyn have been less than pleased..

in 2007 they had a real problem with both internal and external pay parity and had people leaving in large numbers from the mobile security teams..

I was around a bunch of their guys out in Herat in 2008 and 2009 that werent real happy either.. part of it wasnt Dyns fault.. the project site the guys were assigned to was a dump.. and was very poorly supported by the contract firm that was supposed to be providing meals, MWR, etc.. but Dyn wasnt stepping up to do anything about it (at least no one out there thought they were making any attempts).. and they had alot of pissed off people on that particular site..

It was pretty easy cherry picking guys from Dyn in Astan back when I was doing alot of hiring there (2007- early 2010).. as a general rule they were paid less, took more risks, and lived in poorer conditions than I could provide them..

the one exception seemed to be the guys working poppy erradication.. many of those guys were in extremely high risk positions.. but got paid well.. and seemed to love their jobs and loved the people they worked for.. it was tough convincing a poppy guy to move over to the dark side..

Recruiting guys away from Dyn in Iraq has always been tough.. they have decent facilities in most places.. and their pay is pretty much on par with everyone elses.. not to mention Dyn is so large and there are so many opportunities there (by comparrison with what other companies can offer) that people are reluctant to leave a job where they have more potential longevity and jump into something else where the paychecks may run out in a year or less..

Recruiting them away in places like Africa and LATAM is extremely difficult.. especially if they arent working security and are doing something else (infrastructure support, fire fighting, aviation, etc..).. in many AO's Dyn is the only game in town.. in others you have the same problem as Iraq.. Dyn offers longer term employment..

I do agree about Astan though.. their track record there for keeping people happy is less than "good"... Im sure someone would think they had a great job with Dyn in Astan... but Im equally sure that many people thought their experience with Dyn in Astan sucked rocks...

[Frosty26]

If we are talking A'stan exclusively.. I can attest that the majority of the people I know that have worked both PSD and CivPol assignments for Dyn have been less than pleased..

in 2007 they had a real problem with both internal and external pay parity and had people leaving in large numbers from the mobile security teams..

I was around a bunch of their guys out in Herat in 2008 and 2009 that werent real happy either.. part of it wasnt Dyns fault.. the project site the guys were assigned to was a dump.. and was very poorly supported by the contract firm that was supposed to be providing meals, MWR, etc.. but Dyn wasnt stepping up to do anything about it (at least no one out there thought they were making any attempts).. and they had alot of pissed off people on that particular site..

It was pretty easy cherry picking guys from Dyn in Astan back when I was doing alot of hiring there (2007- early 2010).. as a general rule they were paid less, took more risks, and lived in poorer conditions than I could provide them..

the one exception seemed to be the guys working poppy erradication.. many of those guys were in extremely high risk positions.. but got paid well.. and seemed to love their jobs and loved the people they worked for.. it was tough convincing a poppy guy to move over to the dark side..

Recruiting guys away from Dyn in Iraq has always been tough.. they have decent facilities in most places.. and their pay is pretty much on par with everyone elses.. not to mention Dyn is so large and there are so many opportunities there (by comparrison with what other companies can offer) that people are reluctant to leave a job where they have more potential longevity and jump into something else where the paychecks may run out in a year or less..

Recruiting them away in places like Africa and LATAM is extremely difficult.. especially if they arent working security and are doing something else (infrastructure support, fire fighting, aviation, etc..).. in many AO's Dyn is the only game in town.. in others you have the same problem as Iraq.. Dyn offers longer term employment..

I do agree about Astan though.. their track record there for keeping people happy is less than "good"... Im sure someone would think they had a great job with Dyn in Astan... but Im equally sure that many people thought their experience with Dyn in Astan sucked rocks...

Never was with Dcorp, but had run ins with them here and there and they seemed to have everything wired tight and the guys I ran into (all PSD) were squared away.

Having your logisics and field management squared away is a key for any company,what I have seen is the problem of transition for some of these crews.. you would think the larger ones would have it down just because they have been doing it for so long in Iraq but surprisingly, some of your smaller firms do it better simply becasue of low overhead--seems backwards huh??--not having the big money you would think the field guys would suffer, but it all comes down to spending your money WELL, plus some of these smaller firms are starting fresh in A-Stan and dont have the political headaches of some of the larger firms that grew "roots" in Iraq.