Deployed finance

  • Published
  • By 1st Lt. Randi Norton
  • 319th Air Refueling Wing Public Affairs
GRAND FORKS AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. --  When a person thinks about what is required for a military to run, they usually think of people, weapons, equipment and, above all, money. That's exactly what Capt. Derrick Biggs, 319th Comptroller Squadron, focused on during his recent deployment. 

Captain Biggs deployed with the Multinational Corps-Iraq to Camp Victory, Iraq, from September 2006 to January 2007. As an MNC-I augmentee, he performed two functions. 
The first three months of his four-month deployment was spent as a member of the military transition team at the Iraqi Ground Forces Command. During his last month, he worked in the MNC-I C8 Resource Management office as a budget officer. 

While working at the IGFC, he was the advisor to an Iraqi one-star general on payroll and budgeting for the entire Iraqi army. 

"I found [the Iraqis] were very receptive to our advice and working with us," said Captain Biggs. "The Iraqi general I worked for was very passionate and knew what he wanted to accomplish and what direction he wanted to go." 

Captain Biggs and his team also dealt with payment for the Iraqi army moving into Baghdad. 

"Since the [Iraqi army] soldiers were paid in cash, we had to find ways to track the right people receiving the right amount," he said. "We also had to figure out how to deal with AWOL [absent without leave] soldiers and reinstating their pay when they returned." 

The payroll proved to be the most complicated issue. Each Iraqi division would send a payroll representative to Baghdad to pick up cash for the troops. The reps would then have to drive the cash back to the division, which could sometimes take days. 

"We had to worry about things like security for the trucks, as well as corruption," he said. "In some instances, the pay master would charge a tax , so we had to figure out ways to combat that." 

The financial system is a work in progress and will take time to get everything worked out, he said. 

"Our biggest challenge was finding solutions that would work with the Iraqi system and culture," he said. "The American tendency is to fix the problem, and we just had to step back and help them find a solution without actually doing the work for them." 

During the last month of Captain Biggs' deployment, he found himself managing the Logistics Civil Augmentation Program. LOGCAP funds all life support contracts in the Iraq Theater for 160,000 coalition forces from more than 27 nations. The $4.5 billion budget covers facilities and equipment leasing, dining facility services, power generation throughout the theater, utilities payment, sewage and sanitary treatment, supplies for detainee operations, and various other services that fall under base life support. 

Captain Biggs said being able to work with other branches of our military as well as the Iraqi military was a very rewarding experience. 

"One thing the Iraqi general said was they appreciate the Americans being there, but he also recognized that the Iraqis need to solve the Iraqi problems. He and I had to develop trust in my initial time there. After a while he said 'I can now consider you my friend and my brother.'"