NAVFAC employee gets national GSA award

[B]WASHINGTON[/B]—Eugene Diaz, a contracting officer for the Naval Facilities Engineering Command Marianas, was named the General Services Administration’s winner of the prestigious 2008 Ida Ustad Award for Excellence in Acquisition in a ceremony held at the Washington Navy Yard on Oct. 27.

The annual $5,000 award, sponsored by the GSA, recognizes an individual government employee whose actions demonstrate or embody the concept of a contract specialist as business leader-advisor, and have a major impact on improving the acquisition process.

“This comes as a surprise but it is truly an honor to receive this recognition,” said Diaz, who joined NAVFAC Marianas as an intern in 2002. “More so, it’s an honor to have been surrounded by such a professional acquisition workforce in the different assignments that I supported—I extend this recognition to all of them.”

Diaz is an acquisition professional working for NAVFAC Marianas in Guam. While forward-deployed to the Philippines, he served as the Administrative Contracting Officer providing oversight of the Operations Support Contract for Joint Special Operations Task Force – Philippines. This major contract, an annual value of approximately $30 million, encompasses 15 functional areas, ranging from air operations, morale, welfare, and recreation, facilities management, utilities, and galley services.

Bob Griffin, NAVFAC Assistant Commander for Acquisition, praised Diaz for his commitment to NAVFAC and his dedication to the principles embodied in the award. “His oversight and attention to detail are directly responsible for this award. He truly embodies excellence in acquisition for NAVFAC.”

As the ACO, Diaz was the on-site agent for NAVFAC and served as an advisor to the JSOTF-P, ensuring the contractor understood the command’s multi-service requirements.

Diaz was the liaison between the different military services in Hawaii and the Philippines involved in the contract. He was the driving force in facilitating communications between all stakeholders and in resolving any contract interpretation issues, and was the main influence in promoting the best practices of NAVFAC operations support contracting to this remote and challenging location.

Diaz joined NAVFAC Marianas after graduating from the University of Guam with a degree in accounting. He was selected as the NAVFAC Marianas Employee of the Year in 2005, and in 2007 was assigned to temporary duty with the Marine Corps at Quantico, Va., to support the high profile Mine Resistant Ambush Protected Systems program.

NAVFAC manages the planning, design, construction, contingency engineering, real estate, environmental, and public works support for U. S. Navy shore facilities around the world. Its annual volume of business amounts to $11 billion. [B][I](NAVFAC)[/I][/B]