NCBC Gulfport Serves as Main Provider for Purchase Card Support

by Ryan Labadens, US Navy Public Affairs

Naval Construction Battalion Center (NCBC) Gulfport has a unique distinction when it comes to supplying the needs of the Navy’s facilities in Navy Region Southeast. The Naval Supply Systems (NAVSUP) Fleet Logistics Center Jacksonville (FLCJ) Gulfport onboard NCBC serves as the primary provider for Government Commercial Purchase Card (GCPC) support within the region.

According to Rodney Duggins, NAVSUP FLCJ Gulfport site director and NCBC Gulfport supply officer, the purchase card cell allows the Fleet Logistics Center to support purchases for Public Works departments on various bases in the region for materials they may need in their facilities, whether it be bulbs for light fixtures, hinges for doors or practically anything else a facility may need to remain operational.

Fleet Logistics Center Jacksonville and Naval Facilities Engineering Command (NAVFAC) Southeast came up with the concept to consolidate purchase card support at one location for Navy Region Southeast in early 2018 to help streamline the process and to reduce the overall costs of the purchasing process. Duggins mentioned that Gulfport was selected because of its success rate in ordering and delivering purchase items in a timely manner, and because it had room to expand and accommodate additional personnel.

According to Duggins, the GCPC Team Gulfport currently supports nine Public Works departments for various bases within Navy Region Southeast. At the time of this writing, 7,283 purchase request lines, valued at $2.96 million, have been processed with 6,990 purchase request lines received on time. The 90% on-time material receipt goal was consistently exceeded with an overall on-time material receipt rate of 96%.

“The overall goal for us is to receive their material on time at least 90 percent of the time, and we’ve been pretty successful in doing that to date,” said Duggins.

Duggins noted that building or facility managers who need items repaired must submit their request to the NAVFACSE Call Center, which then submits the repair request to the local Public Works department. The local Public Works department’s artisans then determines what material is required to effect the repair action and submits a purchase request to procure the required material. Then the Fleet Logistics Center Gulfport government commercial purchase card cell receives and reviews the request and finds vendors where they can procure the items for shipping to the requesting Public Works department.

There are also four different priority levels for making these purchases: emergency purchases have a turnaround time of 24 hours for delivery, urgent purchases have a 48-hour turnaround, routine purchases have up to 14 days, and ongoing projects have up to 30 days or more for item delivery.

While the consolidation is still an ongoing process, Duggins said the overall goal is to have GCPC Team Gulfport provide quality, on-time purchase card cell service here at NCBC and for all the activities supported throughout Navy Region Southeast. Duggins noted that to date, the team has done an exceptional job.

“Each purchase request takes on a life of its own, but we want to make sure that we’re following the processes we need to ensure that everything flows the way it should,” said Duggins.