The UEI is over, what now?

SCHRIEVER AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- "Schriever should be proud of itself. That was absolutely demonstrated with our Unit Effectiveness Inspection grade, with that being said, we just started."

These words were asserted by Maj. Nicholas Sanders, 50th Space Wing Inspector General, in regards to the second phase of the Commander's Inspection Program.  The focus now for the wing is self-assessment.

"You can't fix what you don't know is broken," said Sanders.

Last October, the Air Force Space Command Inspector General Team evaluated the men and women of the 50th Space Wing on four major graded areas and the wing earned an overall score of "Effective." This inspection marked the first of its kind. The new system is designed to evaluate adequacy, accuracy, and relevance of the CCIP, which differed from being focused purely on compliance every two years.

"The whole basis of the Air Force Inspection System is a continuous process. Just because we got through the UEI doesn't mean that we're done and we can rest until the next UEI in 2016," according to Lou Fischer, 50th Space Wing director of inspections.

Although this was a huge milestone for the base in response to the new AFIS, there is still work to be done and everyone down to the most junior Airman needs to be involved, said Sanders.

"Just to give you scope, the wing has more than 65,000 requirements it has to maintain to meet all Air Force Instruction requirements," said Sanders. "They vary anywhere from appointment letters to training requirements."

The focus needs to be on the units and every individual continually self-assessing, ensuring compliance or identifying areas where they are not compliant, Fischer said.

One avenue for self-assessment is known to many as MICT, a.k.a the Management Internal Control Toolset. The web-based program, although not the only means for tracking, provides checklists for units, which should be utilized regularly. It is monitored by the IG and goes up all the way up to Headquarters Air Force. 
   
"We always have to be ready," Fischer said.

Apart from detecting deficiencies, the base should also be finding solutions, he emphasized.

"We don't know what we don't know at our level, we know what's not being done" he said. "It is up to the unit to peel back the layers and figure out why."

Fischer said in order to correct an action we have to know what the root cause is.

"We should be asking why," he said.

The 50th Space Wing Inspector General Team wants Team Schriever to evaluate if they are doing the due diligence of ensuring leadership is aware of deficiencies and what's causing them.

"We want this to be the thought process of everyone," said Sanders. "We want people to find what's broken and elevate it to the appropriate level so it can be fixed," said Sanders.