New inspection program vital tool for commanders

  • Published
  • By Airman 1st Class Alystria Maurer
  • 28th Bomb Wing Public Affairs
ELLSWORTH AIR FORCE BASE, S.D. --  As a way of improving mission readiness and work efficiency, the Air Force is implementing a new inspection system across the service that provides commanders the ability to routinely do self inspections in their units.

The program - Commanders Inspection Program--is designed to help commanders quickly gain situational awareness of their unit's weaknesses so they can be addressed before they become an issue.

"Ultimately, commanders are responsible for Air Force instruction compliance," said Maj. James Smith, 28th Bomb Wing director of wing inspections and subject matter expert for the Ellsworth CCIP. "Under the Commanders Inspection Program, commanders can use the Management Internal Control Toolset database to easily gain visibility on their issues relating to compliance."

Under these new regulations, squadrons will perform their own internal inspections using the MICT system. Then, the wing inspector general inspection team will visit a squadron and ensure the reports are correct as part of the external inspection.

"Our job is to validate a squadron's MICT self-assessment checklist and document any identified deficiencies," said Smith.

Every month, the IGI office will organize and schedule small scale inspections to test units and evaluate their performance. The reports will be on file for Air Combat Command to check, ensuring wings are conducting the scheduled exercises.

"At any given time, we should be mission ready," said Smith. "If we are mission ready, we should be inspection ready - they are now one in the same."

Smith said commanders can now utilize the MICT system, which provides a snapshot of areas that need to be worked on within their unit, adding that an AF-wide standardized self awareness tool has never been available to commanders before.

"With a few clicks of a mouse, a commander can now see their compliance status," said Smith. "It's an instant visual of what areas need work so commanders can start putting plans in place to eliminate non-compliance."

Smith added that this system will identify weaknesses, blind spots and shortfalls that a commander may not be aware of.
"As a commander, this allows me to see areas where we need improvement, as well as areas where we are doing well," said Col. Susan Pietrykowski, 28th Medical Group commander. "This program helps us to be in a continuous state of readiness versus spending a lot of extra resources to gear up for inspections for a few months at a time. Now, we're putting focus on those areas every day."