Navigating the various permissions and licenses to operate in a foreign country can be daunting.
DynCorp International’s Afghanistan Operations team is a group of eleven employees that support almost all our programs in Afghanistan. Their special support ranges across many different areas including Security, Personal Security Transport (PST), Tax, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Afghanistan (MoFA), Administration, and Visa/Liaison support. Much of their work allows the programs in Afghanistan to meet the rule of Afghan law and to ensure that the laws and rules are applied properly and correctly.
These team members interact with the various Afghan ministries, ensuring visas and MoFA reference numbers are delivered and processed on time and that comprehensive tax situations are dealt with accurately and correctly. Additionally, the team, led by security director Glen Lewis, ensures that whenever there is an incident, timely and accurate information is disseminated across all channels and levels of DynCorp International.
One of the most important challenges this team faces is renewing the Services International LLC/Risk Management Company (SIL/RMC) license each year. Without the license or a letter bridging to the next license, a company can no longer provide RMC services to its customers – in short, the company cannot conduct certain types of business in Afghanistan. Mr. Zubair Wahabzai, the Visa/Government Liaison specialist, took on this difficult challenge even after the Ministry of Interior Counterterrorism Department (MoICT) insisted it would not be willing to give any type of bridging letters to any RMC companies in Afghanistan. After multiple trips around the city of Kabul, including daily trips to the MoICT Department to meet with very senior leaders, his constant engagement, coupled with a lot of finesse, resulted in DynCorp International receiving the very first, highly sought-after bridging letter.
Well done, to a very difficult task!