everyone it's a core of being president a subcommittee on national security and foreign affairs the hearing entitled afghanistan and pakistan accountability community oversight of a new interagency strategy will come to order before we begin a hearing i just like to quickly address one piece of business that is left over from the subcommittees june sixth two thousand and nine hearing that was entitled u s contributions to the response to pakistan's humanitarian crisis the situation in the stakes after that hearing i received a request of the united states agency for international development to submit a statement for the record i'd like i would note that the usa id received an invitation to submit a statement prior to the hearing but the climb to do so however given the relevance of this statement to the subject matter of the hearing i ask unanimous consent that the hearing rec consent that the hearing record he kept open for five business days of all members of the subcommittee be allowed to submit a written statement of the record without objection so ordered so once again good morning to everybody here already explained to the people on our panel that i'm sure there's no sign of disrespectful from members to the people that are kind of going to testify and that those members that don't get here to the hearing will certainly read the testimony for the record in the transcript afterwards but i know that at least on the democratic side there's a caucus going on as i indicated probably some discussion about health care if i'm not mistaken and so we just want to express that and otherwise the hearing today probably couldn't be more timely than it is because in the coming days the commanding general in afghanistan lieutenant general stanley mcchrystal is expected to request that president obama provide significant additional numbers of troops for our effort there meanwhile in the coming weeks congress will consider final passage of a bill to triple u s aid to pakistan to almost want to have billion dollars a year in short the united states on the verge of doubling down on a commitment of troops and treasure to afghanistan and pakistan as we've learned in iraq however a sudden increase in conflict resources exponentially increases the likelihood of waste fraud and abuse unfortunately some of our programs in afghanistan and pakistan to date have been flawed and of lack basic accountability measures for example last year the subcommittee and the general government accountability office conducted major investigations of the coalition support funds program by which the united states reimburses pakistan for expenses in it incurs in certain counterterrorism operations this program is represented the bulk of united states aid to pakistan in the past seven years some six point seven billion dollars today the investigations found that there were no receipts for a significant portion of the u s reimbursements to pakistan and that the program lack basic accountability provisions for the reimbursement program isn't really designed to improve the pakistani military's capabilities because of terrorism and counterinsurgency operations in afghanistan in january two thousand and nine the governor countability office report brought attention to the significant lack of accountability for two hundred forty two thousand two hundred three small arms provided to the afghan national security forces part of the fences combined security transition command in afghanistan otherwise known as seized as expected could not provide records did not track serial numbers but could not locate a significant portion of the weapons provided in addition the report drew to the attention to the inability of the afghan national security forces to safeguard those weapons while we are at a crossroads in united states policy here in washington d c it appears that we're also at a crossroads on the ground in afghanistan and pakistan trends in afghanistan have not been good the taliban is resurgent from khandahar to can do this three weeks ago afghanistan held presidential and provincial elections in the middle of this deteriorating the security situation the results of that election are not final but there are credible reports of widespread fraud any cloud over the legitimacy of afghanistan's president would not would add a sense of insecurity that threatens international efforts there in pakistan the story is more mixed at the years of inconsistent attention to the threat posed by extremist militants pakistan civilian leadership and military forces seem to have gathered the resolve necessary to confront the challenges they face they harness the political will and manpower to retake the swat valley and the adjoining areas of the malecon region many pakistani soldiers paid the ultimate sacrifice during this campaign unfortunately it stalled at the border south waziristan by all accounts a hotbed of  militancy including senior al qaeda leadership the killing last month a via to a masood was a significant development but it must be followed by concerted efforts by the pakistanis themselves to bring security and to reassert the authority and services of its government in these troubled regions in afghanistan the united states international reconstruction and aid efforts face a daunting challenge trying to rebuild a war torn country in the midst of active insurgency and pakistan security challenges and political sensitivities currently restrict inspectors general from the mobility access and presence necessary to do the task the principal question guiding today's hearing is whether the accountability community is prepared to ramp up its own efforts to mirror the massive increase in the resources that the united states will devote to pakistan and afghanistan in the coming years frankly i have serious concerns about the community's collective ability to provide comprehensive oversight coverage that keeps pace with the rapid bloom in united states activities in the region especially given the enormous burdens already borne by those offices the threshold challenge they face in security at the numerous trips to afghanistan and pakistan i'm acutely aware of the strict limits imposed on personnel in country however sustained physical presence in afghanistan the stand is crucial to establishing the relationships necessary to receive tips of waste fraud and abuse three week rotations are not enough to establish the informal interactions and could bride vital information about flood in fatal activities another concern i have is the accountability community's coverage of united states aid to pakistan security challenges make u s aid efforts all the more vulnerable to waste fraud and abuse in particular i have serious questions regarding oversight coverage of aid efforts in the northwest frontier province and the federally administered tribal areas finally i'd like all the panelist thoughts on a basket and i can barry's call to afghan eyes more of our aid efforts in order to build afghan government capacity how will the united states government accountability community navigated its role  overseeing such a programs we count on the inspectors general and the g a o as ball works against waste fraud and abuse especially in these difficult economic times we must demand absolute transparency and accountability for every last taxpayer dollars concerns as the chairman with regard to the oversight community's ability to police and to make sure that that there isn't significant waste fraud abuse i think the backdrop here of  to see what safeguards are in place and if you have the resources of the tools to ensure that our money is being well spent with that i look forward to hearing thank you the subsidy when i receive testimony from the panel before us today i'll give a brief introduction of each of the past and thankfully it is brief because we really read all of your credentials that would probably take up the rest of the hearing we have a very distinguished panel here today has been doing great service to their kind to the country which we appreciate and we understand also the difficulty of what you were c studies in the department of defense he retired from the united states marine corps in two thousand and four and previously served as the deputy commander of marine corps forces in europe general fields holds a b s from south carolina state university and an m a from pepperdine university mr gordon had dell serves as the inspector general for the department of defense from two thousand and one to two thousand and nine he served as the inspector general at the department of labor prior to this position he served in the united states secret service for twenty nine years where he worked as the assistant tista serves as the inspector general of the united states agency for international development and concurrently holds this position at the millennium challenge corporation and the united states african development foundation and the interim american foundation prior to this for the department of state from two thousand and two to two thousand and three he served as the head of delegation for negotiations with the people's republic of china on the construction of new embassies prior to assuming this post he served more than twenty five years the united states foreign service he holds a b a from johns hopkins university and then yes from the university of virginia ms jacqueline williams bridges serves as the managing director of international affairs and trade the united states government accountability office from two thousand and two to two thousand and four she led  external liaison unit in the government accountability office prior to this position see services spec the general of the united states department of state and the united states i control the disarmament agency in the united states information agency and the broadcasting board of governors  you all again for being witnesses here today making yourselves available with your substantial expertise as you would all know is the policy this committee to swear witnesses in before they testify so i ask you to please stand and raise your right hands as anybody else let me testifying with you that i ask they also do the same do you solemnly swear to tell the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth thank you the record of the gave it all the witnesses answered in the affirmative i do tell you that all of your written statements will be put on the record i know some of the you were kind enough to file extensive written statements you needn't feel compelled to lend just to that you were happy to have comments for five minutes if we can and then we'll go to questions and answers on that so when we start with you general thank you again for being  on a year ago that cigar obtained funding we continue to aggressively build our organization to conduct reviews of reconstruction projects and to provide findings and recommendations that will serve the congress and the administration appropriately congress has appropriated about thirty eight billion dollars since two thousand and two to rebuild afghanistan the president's fiscal year two thousand and ten budget request includes additional funding for afghanistan which would bring funding for afghanistan to about fifty billion through two thousand and ten together with my colleagues at this table cigar certainly is committed to providing the oversight needed to prevent waste fraud and abuse and promote the effective implementation of the reconstruction program in afghanistan we are members of the southwest asia joint planning group at its pakistan afghanistan subcommittee on afghanistan and pakistan which i serve as forums for coordinating all work all of that which is said to suggest that we do coordinate also in our investigations work we collaborate with the national procurement fraud task force and the international contract corruption task force so it all has grown from an office of two to an office of forty six with with an additional seventeen prospective employers in the pipeline the past several months ago has met regularly with senior u s government officials in both washington and afghanistan in kabul we attend the meetings at the embassy we have also built a strong network among the agency says the international community and the military components throughout afghanistan these meetings together with our ongoing work help us monitor the administration's development of a new approach in afghanistan and of course we are using this information as a basis to adapt and expand oversight plans we work continuously with members of the oversight community to make sure that oversight work is a coordinated and not duplicative targets the highest priority areas aims to produce positive change and does not overburden the u s civilian and military personnel who are implementing the reconstruction programs we are keenly aware that it is our job to find and document waste fraud and abuse with the express purpose of working to improve the u s assistance program and identify wrongdoers likewise we are poised to identify lessons learned our mission is difficult it has taken time to hire staff capable and willing to do this work in a dangerous environment however we have made considerable progress and as of last week we have issued for mandated for the reports to this congress and five audit and with inspections reports each with recommendations for improve processes and corrective action in other three draft reports are currently at the age is for comment as we speak we have twenty one ongoing audits and inspections and we expect to issue five or more reports before the end of this month cigars investigative work has resulted in over four million dollars and cost avoidance in one case and the guilty pleas of two people offering one million dollars in bribes for contracts in another hour investigators are working twenty five other active cases as we speak what has identified problems with contract oversight the lack of integrated information on reconstruction activities and concerns with sustainment capacity the impact of what was i cannot be measured solely by statistics we believe that being on the scene is a real deterrent to waste fraud and abuse we also operate a hotline given giving us coalition partners and the afghan citizens various methods by which to report allegations of waste fraud and abuse related especially to the reconstruction efforts the hotline has produced a number of credible leads that we of course pursuing we are working hard to put produce and provide the robust oversight essential for the successful implantation of reconstruction programs in afghanistan and i welcome your questions they want to pertaining thank you thank you sir just ahead l r chairman tierney ranking member flake and members of the subcommittee thank you for the opportunity to appear before you this morning mr chairman oversight in southwest asia with emphasis on afghanistan and pakistan is one of my top priorities it is my goal to ensure the health safety and the welfare of our troops and to ensure that taxpayer dollars are being spent wisely our current efforts including creased oversight by enhancing our in theater presen and ensuring comprehensive and effective inner agency coordination the oversight we provide through on its investigations inspections and assessments truly makes a difference especially in such an unstable and dangerous region where the department of defense operations and troop levels are increasing earlier this year president obama announced a comprehensive new strategy to disrupt dismantle and defeat al in pakistan and afghanistan and to prevent their return to either country in the future this strategy will involve several departments and agencies in our government we have conducted oversight on pakistan in two thousand and three and again in two thousand and nine and started oversight efforts in afghanistan in two thousand and four and we are increasing our resources in the region to ensure proper oversight and staffing in regard to the new strategy and the build up of u s forces and programs in afghanistan to support oversight we have a stablished field offices in strategic locations in southwest asia we also utilize an expeditionary workforce model to support our efforts this helps facilitate timely reviews and reporting of results while minimizing disruption to the war fighter our central field office in the region is located at bagram airfield with the support and indorsement of the commander u s central command we have staffed new offices in kandahar and kabul with fourteen deployed personnel six investigators  eight auditors in addition our staff travel as needed for feel work in afghanistan currently there are five auditors and two engineers for instance on temporary travel in afghanistan and i will be traveling there myself in the near future to meet with general mcchrystal and other commanders in theater i have created a new key position within the d o d office of inspector general to ensure that there is effective coordination occasion within the oversight community within southwest asia this position the special deputy inspector general for southwest asia will report directly to me and act on my behalf to coordinate and do conflict oversight efforts the d o d i g is the lead oversight agency for accountability in the department for southwest asia including afghanistan and pakistan there are three critical coordination and planning mechanisms the southwest asia joint planning group the comprehensive oversight plan for southwest asia and our many investigative task forces in addition in may two thousand and nine the joint planning group stablished a new subcommittee to coordinate audit and inspection work slowly and in afghanistan and pakistan this subcommittee chaired by the inspector general for the u s agency for international development mr gamma tisa issued in august two thousand and nine the afghanistan pakistan comprehensive oversight plan i thank the committee for the opportunity to discuss our ongoing efforts and i look forward to continuing our strong working relationship with congress and all oversight organizations engaged in afghanistan and pakistan morning add chairman tourney ranking member flake members of the committee thank you for inviting me here to testify today on behalf of the office of inspector general for the u s agency for international development i'm pleased to be here along with my colleagues from other oversight organizations with whom we work closely as we execute our audit inspection and investigative responsibilities that ghana center pakistan historically my office has overseen programs in these countries from i read office in the philippines increasing our staffing levels there is usa defunding in afghanistan and pakistan have increased we recently established a full time presence of foreign service officers in these countries placing an auditor and a criminal investigator in kabul and two auditors an external investigator and his lama bud these employees will be in addition to those currently providing oversight from our office in the philippines we also have a request for three additional positions in afghanistan to date in afghanistan and we have conducted twenty seven program performance audits in which we have made eighty four recommendations for operational improvement of u s eighty programs moreover we have issued nearly thirty financial audits that identified more than eight million dollars in question of which one point three million was sustained in addition to conducting audits we investigate allegations of fraud and waste in these countries in afghanistan we have opened forty four investigations and have that every salted in eight indictments nine arrests and three convictions and savings in the coverage have told eighty seven million dollars i want to mention just two of our recent investigations involving security contracts in afghanistan in one defendant pled guilty to conspiracy this past week for his role in a scheme to solicit kickbacks in connection with the warning of private security contractors in another investigation for individuals and a security company they work for were indicted after they obtained reimbursement for fraudulent expenses the company and the individuals charged have also been suspended indefinitely from doing business with the government one former employer serving a two year sentence and more than twenty four million dollars have been saved in connection with this investigation in pakistan since two thousand and two we have conducted five program performance audits and made twelve recommendations for a program improvements are twenty three financial audits conducted in pakistan for identified approximately six million dollars and qu of which three point five million was sustained and we have several ongoing investigations in pakistan we in the oversight community have been working diligently for several years to coordinate our oversight activities in afghanistan are com vesa gaiters work closely with the national procurement taskforce which is established by the department of justice to identify and prosecute fraud associated with government contracting we are also members of the international contract corruption task force and interagency law enforcement group that coordinates contract and procurement fraud investigations and high risk international locations such as iraq and afghanistan i knew coordination group which mr head l mentioned which we chair was formed in june of two thousand and nine in response to the administration's focus on afghanistan and pakistan this subgroup of the southwest asia planning group consists of representatives from the organizations you see with me here today the afghanistan pakistan sub  group issued an oversight plan in august of two thousand and nine i have submitted a copy of the plan with my written testimony in acid in a part of the record this plan corresponds to the strategies developed by the us government for assisting afghanistan and pakistan in addressing high priority issues the five areas addressed in the plan are security governance rule of law and human rights economic and social development contracting oversight and performance and cross cutting programs the subgroup  monitor this plan and make adjustments as necessary during quarterly meetings the members of the afghanistan pakistan sub group have been working together to address oversight in this region for several years and i am confident that we are affected the cordoning with one another to provide the best oversight possible i want to emphasize however that oversight is a shared responsibility that of the inspector general community and the agencies we oversee as well as the contractors and grantees who implement foreign assistance programs we must all be vigilant to ensure that tax dollars are not wasted thank you again for inviting me here to testify look forward to answering your questions thank you investigation chairman tierney ranking member flake members of the subcommittee thank you for inviting me to discuss the department of state all i g oversight plan and our coordination and planning efforts with other i g s to provide oversight of u s resources and projects in pakistan and afghanistan i also led this office from nine hundred ninety four to hundred ninety five and i'm very pleased with the significant increase in oversight that all i g is conducting around the world the state department oh i g is an original member of the southwest asia joint planning group responsible for coordinating the work of formal regularly scheduled monthly meetings members take part in weekly and sometimes daily discussions we are acutely aware of the difficulties in working in pakistan and afghanistan and the burden that our staff can place on u personnel working in those countries therefore we are committed to zero voiding redundancy and maximizing our effectiveness let me begin with pakistan our middle east regional office maryl will conduct a review of this fall of the current management control environment at embassy islam abad in anticipation of a significant increase in funding and programme implementation during the next five years merrill will assess risk in vulnerability associated with achieving current new program objectives our plan is to use this risk and vulnerability assessment to drill down and conduct more thorough examinations of those programs and activities designated as most vulnerable to waste fraud and abuse as we learn from iraq assistance programs in two thousand or in two thousand and five effective management controls are needed at the initial stages of the system's implementation additionally in two thousand and eight merrell completed a review of the fulbright program in afghanistan our office of inspections will conduct a full post inspection of embassy islam abad and calendar year two thousand and ten post inspections thoroughly cover every aspect of department activity managed by the embassy in august oh i g n embassy islam about agreed to have merrill open a five person office at the embassy to monitor department programs our auditor is an analyst will be stationed in pakistan supplemented as needed with additional staff to provide the necessary oversight meryl has effectively used the staffing model that embassy baghdad and plans to open a similar sized office at embassy kabul this month we expect to have our merrill office in pakistan open an and ten as funding levels permit now i'll talk to afghanistan our office of inspections will be in kabul this october inspecting the mission and should issue a report later in two thousand and nine about twelve inspectors including a highly experienced team leader a former ambassador will conduct the post inspection of all mission aspects including contracting mission programs consular affairs and security and protection additionally the office of inspections will issue a report later this month on the department's dene mining program in afghanistan in august we released a merrill report covering the performance of the us training center formerly blackwater under the terms of its afghanistan contract narrow also is a report to supporting and joint state d o d audit of the afghan national police training and mentoring program they will report at the end of this year looking forward to two thousand and ten merril plans to work on a number of department funded programs including the following following refugees and internally display programs public diplomacy and the embassies guard forces regarding investigations in two thousand and nine we created the middle east investigative branch to conduct investigations in support of the department's expanding middle east and south asia missions need primary mission is to respond to criminal allegations and support investigative activities concerning department programs employees and contractors from pakistan to morocco with focus concentration on the high value high risk areas of iraq back to pakistan and afghanistan to date six criminal investigators are assigned to meet with five posted overseas and one in arlington virginia we can move our personnel easily from these forward bases in the region as needed to islam about kabul or other priority posts we plan to increase meet staff at current posts adding one in baghdad  twenty eleven funding permits in two thousand and ten we plan to add two staff to me based in d c meet completed construction and staffing of its cairo office and twenty nine during f y two thousand and nine needs investigative activities in afghanistan includes six open investigations and four preliminary inquiries covering a number of alleged criminal violations the committee asked how we would plan our oversight our oversight should the pending bills for increased foreign assistance to pakistan provide an additional one and a half billion each year over five years it is there is clear congressional intent for an in country presence bio i g s in pakistan we've been staff in kabul in islamabad with temporary deploying and and we will increase staff there as necessary successful funding either way will greatly improve our financial position for our office in islam about which opens in ten twenty ten the priority setting the current bills of governance economic development and investing in people could touch on a number of state programs that we over and some that we share with you say this includes rule of law international our conduct of law enforcement education and cultural testimonies on u s efforts to disrupt defeat and destroy terrorism in afghanistan and pakistan our work has identified the need for greater attention on issues such as the development of a comprehensive interagency plan for pakistan building the afghan national security forces accountability over billions of u s assistance to afghanistan and pakistan contract management and oversight of contractors and u counter narcotics efforts gio's past work has recommended specific improvements needed in u s efforts that should be considered in the administration's future strategic planning and implementation detail found that several existing conditions such as worsening security poor infrastructure and the limited institutional capacity of the afghan government continue to create challenges for the u s efforts to assist with securing stabilizing and rebuilding afghanistan and combating terrorism in pakistan to address these challenges g a o has recommended that state d o d and usa id improve their planning enhanced enter agency coordination increased police mentors for training the a m t as you noted in your opening statement mr tyranny we have all also recommended increased oversight of weapons provided to the n s f and the coalition support funds provided to pakistan we also reported on the need for improvements contract management and the numbers of oversight personnel with experience in contingency operations recently the end of the administration announced a new integrated civilian military campaign plan for afghanistan and we understand that the plan for pakistan is being completed state and d o d have coordinated their plans for afghan national security force capacity building in addition d o d s taken steps to improve accountability for weapons provided to afghanistan and coalition support funds provided to pakistan jail has several ongoing reviews addressing a wide range of issues such as the deteriorating condition in afghanistan building the afghan army u s contracting and creating sustainable development programs in both countries like our colleagues in the accountability community o works to improve the performance and accountability of government g a o to its authority of course extends beyond single departments or agencies in order to a provide assistance and support to the congress to make informed policy and funding decisions across government jails policy and agency protocols require us to coordinate our oversight with other members of the accountability community and we enjoy a very good working relationship with them for example as a member of the sub group and southwest asia a joint planning group g a o meets quarterly with the r g s and we submit our ongoing work for publication and respective documents in addition to these more formal consultations we regularly communicate with colleagues in various offices to ensure our work is coordinated and overlap is minimized inevitably however in all of being our audit plans we often find that our planned work is quite similar in scope given the statutory mandates of our respective organizations to conduct audit and evaluate programs and activities that involve multiple agencies the overlap in our planning is not surprising however we find that through the coordination group that we have enjoyed in the fluid communication that occurs across our office we are able to deacon flicked and avoid potential overlap we  particularly a very strong working relationship with figure as it has stood up its organization over the past year that's not surprising since many of the employees of the girl former employees of g a o and my team in particular the u s personnel face enormous challenges working in afghanistan and pakistan the security situation limit their movements and their ability to monitor projects and the surge of civilian and military personnel has strained housing and other logistical support it is in that environment that geo and our colleagues in the audit community enter our embassies and our military bases in afghanistan and pakistan as such we work to minimize the burden o oversight places on program management staff however with additional u s resources and attention focused by this congress and this it ministration on afghanistan and pakistan there should be additional oversight to ensure accountability of u s efforts g a o relies on testimonial evidence documentation as well as on site verification to conduct our work g a o has visited afghanistan and pakistan over ten times in the past two years to ensure the integrity of our own work nevertheless we have faced some challenges in conducting oversight in ca terry due to the unstable security environment and the limited housing available to temporary duty travelers we take steps to mitigate these limitations by taking advantage of opportunities to meet with key officials in more secure locations and when individuals travel to washington we also whenever possible take advantage of technologies such as video conferencing to enhance our ability to conduct our work however g a o has established a steady presence in iraq we've been there since january two thousand and eight we have three staff that are stationed there on six month basis this is proved invaluable to our ability to conduct oversight in iraq with the challenges confronting the u s government for a successful drawdown in iraq and a significant increase in troop presence and resources plan to execute our new strategy in afghanistan and pakistan g i was recently initiated an assessment to determine our requirements in the region as a whole we plan to explore several options including alternative t d y locations in afghanistan and pakistan in closing we recognize that carrying out oversight responsibilities and in secure areas will never be easy or without risk as importantly we recognize that the men and women both civilian and military serving our country there endure hardships in risk to perform the work critical to achievement of our national security and foreign policy goals my colleagues at this table and i know that we must be judicious in our presence and mindful of any unintended additional burden on our diplomats and service personnel j o stands ready to assist the congress in its oversight efforts and will continue to closely coordinate with our colleagues in the accounts auditor's we sound like it sometimes it's a mistake well that we have to do this to cover the ground you describe very well the organizational structures that you have in the in the cooperative efforts that you're making but i haven't heard a lot about investigative strategy and i'd like you all the comment on that a little bit thinking it goes beyond the five years of the president identified with you all so that you go take a look at those but what is the strategy there what types of investigations are you a high priority i worry about implementation are you worried about results what about sustainability you know which is a priority and that what are you going to attack was the strategy going on that basis i know that one of the testimonies the impact of the program on security or the impact of the program and develop it or whatever is bases where the money is that you're well it's really a combination but i mean that would limit it we only have so many people to do it so we try to focus on the largest impact both both from a situation that we are both planning and reacting so if you're talking about investigations criminal investigations most of the time we we are reacting  information that we've obtained you you've seen some of it in my head i understand that i don't mean to cut you short but i just talk about those things where you take the initiative those things that you go in with a design on that it tells which is strategy is there what your priorities are exactly and  like my colleague has has said some of it is going where the money is but a lot of it is looking for where it's the most impact where we where we are where we see great risk to the united states and that's not always where the most money is we also do one other area which is very important and that is inspections and the good thing about inspections is that we can be much more open we can take a much broader point of view  most of the work is actually publicized and in both afghanistan next month and in pakistan early next year we will be using large teams of investigators inspectors i should say  develop leads if you will leads on the ground to work with embassy management and other embassy staff and figure out where we're going that there are the obvious bureaus that we're going to have drugs and saugus if you will defense defense criminal investigative service i think as playing a major role in southwest asia and in fact i would go so far as a say that it's a leadership role and it is about impact i mean the investigative agency it's done by task forces for instance were very involved in the national preparedness fraud task force were very involved in the international contract corruption task force these are these are task  that that look very closely at contract fraud major acquisition fraud but most importantly they work with other criminal bureaus like the f b i alcohol tobacco firearms  so on but our focus is to prevent as much as it is to prosecute for instance we are very involved in education in southwest asia teaching those  and contract officials what to be looking for right now for instance we're very involved in a special project and roll new york we're looking at fourteen billion dollars in payment value is related to army purchases  it's not very glamorous or exciting but out of that will almost certainly come some very important investigative work that will lead to criminal prosecutions in southwest asia what kind of work are  think that we're we're we're we're not just we're reactive we're very medication we're very proactive i would say and i would go so far as a saying that the kremlin best service probably one of the foremost investigative agencies in our government surprising i won't confirm that we have a criminal investigation underway but i don't think you'd be too surprised there are two aspects that we are looking at the first will be criminal misconduct and that i'm not going to speak about but we also when the inspectors come in they will be looking at just what you asked about and that is the oversight over this contract and identifying just who failed on the job and who have to be held accountable and that will be quite public what is looking at that broadly for a committee like this it gives us a little pause if we're unable to police the security guards at the embassy and how good a job we can do with other oversight broader issues it gives me pause to sir and and i would say  that of our security program there are two major efforts the program that was mentioned in the newspapers and in the media is the static guards there is another area which is equally if not even more important and that is what we call the worldwide personal protective service and that is actually protecting our people when they when they move and in that case we've already done a very significant audit all around the world and the the audit's came out well but you can count on the fact that there will be audit and inspections because  was frankly just like the secretary absolutely appalled by this information general fields what progress has the afghanistan high office of oversight made so far and how are we had much confidence in that organization body sir i pleased that the initiative has been taken to address corruption and to put in place this particular kind of device to help deal with it which in large measure is not really unlike work that many of us at this table conduct at the same time again it needs support it needs capacity and i feel confidence i'm so shocked that you don't come to that same conclusion on that that you know there's one thing that individual sitting in the chair is one thing to talk about this whole deal but i think this will i think it a great deal of satisfaction i think that there was a will from president following up on what you just said this is a very distinguished panel but i think it would take equally distinguished panel to think of a worse environment to try to to try to gauge corruption and to root it out  i guess that the line that came to me when the chairman was just speaking is the line from casablanca for the gentleman says gambling at rick's i'm shocked i mean this is this is a government with just imbedded it is a culture of corruption it besides the fact that the president's leadership can best be described as weak he just got reelected and on an extraordinary corrupt election so now we're not only putting billions of dollars at risk but i also think given the lack of accountability and transparency in knowing where things are i think we're putting our young people's lives at risk and the best and brightest of us all and you all and almost unlimited resources i don't have confidence that we can do this that we can do the afghan affectively without widespread corruption because it's embedded in the culture and i guess i want your reaction to how what gives you some hope that in that land with limited access extraordinary dangers and a culture of corruption we should have any say that all that despite your best efforts we are putting our folks at risk and wasting billions of dollars anyone know there we go well i think that the i certainly think you have every every reason to make that statement and there is there is a tremendous amount on the line here tremendous amount of america's wealth is in southwest asia and i think the people here at this table and other members of the inspector general an oversight community who are in departments who oversee programs and operations and budgets that are related to southwest asia in particular clean out afghanistan and pakistan are concerned but i would also say that we have come a long way as an oversight community since two thousand and three i think we've learned a lot i think the department of defense has learned a lot and there have been some great lessons to be learned we have taken issues there were identified in iraq and we have transferred this identified to solutions and transferred those to the operations in afghanistan and i can give you examples of that so i think there is reason for optimism the second thing is in two thousand and the oversight community stablished by the leadership pretty much here at this table a stablish the southwest asia joint planning group it's chaired by the inspector general department of defense over twenty five members of the oversight community tremendous example of now working together identifying problems joint problems reducing redundancy identifying the gaps areas that ought to be looked at that are not being looked at identifying new issues we've got people every day in southwest asia on the ground auditors investigators meeting regularly with the commanders so now a commander doesn't have to wait for three or six months or even a year to get a report he or she finds out right away what's happening and they can make corrective action almost immediately so we're very proactive here we've made some significant steps forward in the last several years the department of g for instance alone we've doubled our audit investigative staff over the last twelve months now the numbers are great we've gone from six to fourteen but that's that's significant we have we have almost doubled our entire south west asia audit and investigative work force and and in the next twelve months we're going to do more we're going to we're going to increase even significantly more the point is that we're all trying to get ahead of the curve here and if you look at it in terms of two thousand and three we've come a long way but what we did yesterday is not good enough for today and what we're going to do tomorrow is going to have to be a heck of a lot better than i recognize your best effort all i'm suggesting is because it affects the decisions we're going to have to make on the president's recommendations that it sounds like what you're telling us today is that you're making improvements and what you're doing and i think the response and i don't see an answer that tells me otherwise is long as you're going through the afghanistan that as long as you're going through afghanistan's government there is no reason anyone should have say that money won't be wasted and lives will be put  i'd like to take a shot at it if if if i might in a way where we are luckier than than you are because we don't make policy we do oversight and that means as far as i'm concerned we have to continue to inspect and audit what are very important programs without saying whether it's a good idea the policy is a good idea or not we we lead leave that to the president and to the congress out there are very important programs that we want to give our best to for instance the rule of law and anti corruption efforts which i think are arguably the most important efforts we had stayed alive to you're looking at now regardless of whether these programs are going to succeed or not we're going to give it our best efforts as long as  s accountability community if you will can't do it alone there is a global accountability community with whom we must also engage geo does this regularly by having consultations in creating working groups with other national audit office says we are engaged now in a capacity building exercise with the iraqis national audit office and we look to do this on a more regional basis so we have to look to share the knowledge that we have in order to create partnerships with other accountability partners afghanistan's national audit office is in its nascent stages but we've seen significant growth in other national audit office is as well i think the frustration of maybe if i say is like a day a day should day late very much mr chairman and appreciate the fact that you and ranking member flake air continues to try to oversee the all the really unbelievable spending that is going on in this standing amount of spending that's going on in this area and in fact general fields mentioned that will be up to fifty billion in rebuilding after afghanistan by the end of two thousand and ten and yesterday's for the first time will be spending over half of that or more in the afghanistan pakistan region sixty eight billion as opposed to sixty one day no one really can humanly comprehend how much even one billion is these are amazing amounts of money that we're talking about and i certainly have no criticism of any of the witnesses here because if we're going to be spending that kind of money we need to have people like this make sure that is being spent in an honest and not wasteful way but the point i would like to make is that we should be spending all this money in the first place we're spending money that we don't  have our national debt is reaching twelve trillion dollars now nobody can comprehend that kind of figure but now they're going to have to come to the congress once again to raise the debt limit once again it's it's just u to liberals until the few days ago george will finally started to question some of this because i've said many times and i still believe that fiscal conservatives should be  and general petraeus said a couple of months ago that we need to remember that afghanistan has been known through the centuries as the graveyard of empires now i'm sure being the good bureaucrat that he is though he i don't suppose there's ever been any real spending by the department of defense that he's ever really opposed and that's one thing that i think him fiscal conservatives are going to have to realize at some point that the that the defense department is first and foremost a gigantic bureaucracy and like any gigantic bureaucracy it always wants to expand its mission and always wants to get increased funding i i have the greatest respect for those in the military and i believe that national defense is probably the most important most legitimate function of a national government but i also don't think that that means that we just automatically should approve every huge increase and every military adventure that the defense department or any other department requests because i will go back to what i said if you meant to go we're spending money that we don't have and we're really putting in great jeopardy the future i used to say of our children and grandchildren but now i say of ourselves because i don't believe it's going to be ten or fifteen years before if that long before we're not able to pay all of our social security and veterans pensions and all those things we promised our own people so i wish all these witnesses well and i commend you mr chairman for for holding th hearing but i think i think we need need to realize that we can't afford to keep doing what we're doing in afghanistan and pakistan and keep expanding our mission increase and increasing our spending over there we're going to increase our troops to the by the end of the year to such date thousand than in all of these areas we're having as many or more civilian contractors than we are military troops and a we got to come to our senses and realize that we just simply can no longer afford this thank you thank us duncan i think the concern here is that obviously we're all looking at yet another strategy for afghanistan and this is that obviously there's a military component to it and some troops are probably going to be recommended by general mcchrystal but this whole development piece that's supposed to be an investment the people are going to make on that the rule of law training of police and other security forces but let's take a quote from specter general fields has written testimony that is the current security situation is neither conducive to building and repairing not the developing afghan capacity to hold elections provide justice will meet the basic needs of the afghan people the efforts haven't been effective and they're replete with accountability problems that's the crux of this and that's why you're all here because i think we all acknowledge that very statement that this is been a mess whatever you want to attribute the problem lie with we've got a situation that hasn't got the attention as you get students two thousand one hundred deeply into this thing with a culture of corruption but also a practice of corruption and corruption be imbedded in the official representatives that are being put in the government of afghanistan and we have other situations over in pakistan so how are you going to proceed you know how are we going to proceed and what are the resources going to apply to that  the really difficult areas in both countries to go into so has there been some consideration about not just spending the money before the processes are in place and if there are those kinds of considerations would you tell us what they are and how they're expecting to as i suspected you know that mr had i'll mention a lot of this is education preventative so i'm hoping that you're out there on the ground ahead of time saying to all of the people that are going to get the money here's some advice musta had a time before we can audit you and investigate you thousand and eight two thousand and eight we issued what we call a summary report included three hundred two reports and testimonies of not only the d o d inspector general but the military  recommendations so there we're following up on every one of those i was just going to ask you that is that that's a lot of recommendations they're not doing anybody i can tell you right now with a good unless somebody drilling down to make sure they're happening yes or i apologize for interrupting you i can tell you right now that we are keeping we're tracking this seventy to eighty percent of those nine hundred plus recommendations are being addressed by the department of defense and many of them have been resolved so there is action but only occurs when there is follow up and that's one of our most important programs as a follow up and more and i wouldn't give us for the record because we have we have a copy don't read it was read it they were happy to have again if you like but you know that's the idea of following up on recommendations made and i think that's essential but i'm also talking here about a little bit of preventive act you know trying to get people to know that was the right course before you get down the path on that you want to be honest as well i would offer another one of your preventive we learned a that electrical systems this may sound fundamental but electrical systems are deficient americans died needlessly needlessly and and those lessons are learned and being transferred to afghanistan that i used and that's sayed do most of the talking but there are two points i'd like to make the first is my staff has been kind enough to explain to me how afp act became pack af and the answer is it was an ambassador holbrooke who started using pac after actually the point that you made about trying to get ahead of the curve is exactly what i think this community is trying to do in pakistan and for that matter why i think you're holding this hearing from may be so bold a large part of it that's why i want to get to it and we are working with the embassy our inspectors will work with them our auditors will work with them raising these various points for instance as as you mentioned and as we all know all too well it is going to be very very difficult to work in the fata federally administered tribal areas it's it's really dangerous and we are working together with the embassy to what i think are some rather imaginative ways to consider how we are going to perform oversight  what is a very challenging area and at least we have the sad experiences in iraq and in afghanistan to guide us now we're talking about a billion and  dollars over five years of serious amount of money i think this committee should want some comfort that that for that money is dispersed that these things are in place as so i ask again is it some mechanism whether it's a trust account or somewhere that that money is going to reside until we're securing the notion that it's not going to distributed until there's something in place that gives us reasonable comfort that it's going to be spent wisely williams because if my colleague let him since he's got most of the money i'll  reactive we do a lot out of fraud awareness training around the world and i don't have the stats but we do hundreds of these training programs where we provide training to not only u s navy personnel  but representatives of contractors subcontractors and grantees we actually get out and show them what to look for in fraud so i think in that proactive way we we do some of what you're looking for but there were  idea but you know historically and many of our audits have shown that many of the problems that they face especially in conflict areas lack of staff lack of lack of trained staff and lack of people willing to go to those places to work  now they are in the agency is in the process of building their staff and hopefully that will help but but certainly in the past they've they've had a problem in that area have clearly learned in the past that while these type of efforts direct cash transfers or direct budgetary support are good intentioned and often result in very good outcomes because presumably they are consistent they allow there to be some consistency and then to patient and planning for what the needs are of the country that we are looking to serve oftentimes in the past we found that the monies that we have spent have not been consistent with the national needs or priorities and therefore there has been a lost opportunity to really make big gains but any direct budgetary support must come with the ability of the accountability community to access the records and the backup documentation that is kept there so that we can exercise some control and oversight as well as the host country government can have some accountable system some data that they can rely upon to ensure that the monies are accounted for and well spent we've learned well in the past in our other investment efforts in countries where there is no such access that we have no ability to track and account for our investment made there second i would also as the congress assistance and support and ensuring that when agencies respond to our recommendations geos recommendations in particular there is a requirement in law that the agencies respond within sixty days to the congress informing them how they intend to act on the recommendations that they've often agreed with before we've issued our reports we incorporate whether or not the agencies agree or disagree as is often the case in transitions in government the agencies aren't aware of this requirement and so most recently in dealing with some of our agencies that we are dealing with at this table we have found that those letters are just piling up and someone's room and not knowing where they should go where they haven't been prepared at  all so we would be glad to work with the congress to try and reinforce some of these mechanisms to assure not only responsiveness to pass recommendations that will prevent misspending and fraud and abuse in the future but also to ensure that there is access and that i want to go here we have not made the recommendation because i have not yet seen this proposal and i don't know what stage this proposal is in but given our past experience with direct budgetary support provision  general we get to management concurrence on the recommendations we make don't object i'm not aware of any of these where we've had an objection that we're not going to do what we recommend and whether they've actually gone through and completed the recommendation  reports are a list of of recommendations in a broad sense so we do keep the congress fully apprised of what we have found what we're doing and what we're monitoring several months ago it was a report on four hundred four million dollars of afghanistan's security forces fun and ministry of by a system and we discovered that there was insufficient the oversight of that particular arrangement that funding the execution of it principally the contract oversight person was located in maryland rather than in afghanistan where the money is being executed we are pleased to report entities so from that standpoint speaking exclusively for jigsaw there has been a response to least that report there are several other reports that we have issued but too early for immediate at what point for a company like ours where do we draw the line and say security situation is so we can't carry out our oversight functions or security situation is so bad that perhaps we should be spending this money because we can't account for all of it where do we draw that lied and i know it's a difficult situation all of us have traveled to afghan we recognize that you can only have offices or personnel in certain areas  can't provide oversight or is it so bad that we simply should be spending these monies in these areas because we can't account for them good question i'm glad to say that i don't believe that we've reached that point yet where the security situation is so bad that we believe that we cannot provide the congress with meaningful information to help you conduct oversight over our engagement in country i think that we and  would inform you if we believe that we're a limitation to our ability to answer the mail if you will i think that we have to take mitigating strategies we have to mitigate against the limitations that may be imposed on our ability to actually make field visits for example when i was in pakistan a couple of months ago we wanted to go to the fata we want to go to push our to see some of the projects that the u s government had funded we were not able to however we were able to extract enough data that we felt was sufficiently reliable from the agencies to be able to conduct our work and to be able to analyze it to make some reasonable judgments as to whether or not it was a good record keeping whether or not we were on track with plans that we had made in country but there are a couple of lessons that have been learned and actually these lessons form the basis for military counterinsurgency doctrine first is to establish security first and foremost establish security before you proceed with reconstruction we've learned this from iraq we've learned a very hard lessons from iraq of investment that has been destroyed our investment  infrastructure that was destroyed because the security was such an unstable situation at second is to create an economic foundation in that country that they can sustain the investment that we have made in country again this goes back to what kinds of strategies do we need to think about going forward as we look to increase our investment there third is to extract the political commitment from the country that they are going to carry out those priorities that they've established priorities that we join in with the country and create the basis for our own strategic goals in that country so i think that we need to continue to think of that as we move forward with any future investment and certainly these are things that we are going to continue to monitor in our own oversight strategy to ensure that that investment is well made and protected and i guess the trick here is not with the car in front of the horse which i think billions of dollars in has been being done i think most notably of the coalition support funds in pakistan  when we were there and investigating whatever we found six point seven billion dollars spent a large pot which was not accounted for at all in part of what happened was the money was basically paid to pakistan what is it a general treasury  that you are at the mercy of the the believing or not believing what was going on but i do know that we looked at about thirty five helicopters that money was paid supposedly to have them repaired and they're all sitting on the ramp but they're unable to move so and that's the kind of thing that we're talking about here that we need to get out in front of this on a situation and as the inspector special inspector general says the current situation in afghanistan is such that it's not conducive to building or repairing nor is it conducive to developing afghans capacity even hold elections which will seem while provide justice to meet the basic needs of the afghan people so we've got to throw money into the develop a side of that without resolving those issues first and that's easy to be doing the right motivations and moving forward but it's hard to do that in pakistan in particular i know that you're out there and we've been out there as well in the flat tire and novelist province area i like a little bit about how it is you have so much faith couldn't get much further out of the shower and the people there told us that it is non governmental organizations told us our own consulate told us they couldn't give you were near where the projects were happening whether was irrigation project what it was well what was a school and so they were trying to use flights overhead flights they were trying to use the word of mouth from other people who have been out there whatever how reliable is that let me clarify we heard the same thing when we were on the ground as we met  with local nationals as we met with agency officials we met with the secretariat of the fatah we are in the course currently of evaluating our development assistance efforts in the fatah we have not reached our conclusions yet but what i'm saying is that we were able to get data that we believe that we can rely on from the agencies to be able to conduct our analysis so we have not yet reached our conclusion having done all the things that you've done that i'm more skeptical than us i would like to see a report and the foundation for you reaching that conclusion bviously we had all those weapons with the potential that they might not be accounted for is a follow up going on for that yes mr chairman in fact we have we have done several reviews  relative to weapons and explosives accountability and in both iraq and afghanistan we we did find that there were concerns we've also found that there have been corrections made with respect to those in iraq we are going to need on just the afghanistan says well we are now focused and have in fact we went to afghanistan last fall we took a look at weapons accountability as well as training and equipment sustainment we had several reports on about will be in motion between now and next spring yes sir thank you now the special inspector a question for you about the report indicating that obviously were aware of salaries going to ghost employees in the security divisions of afghanistan and i think you're following up on that but we also report in your written remarks about some private firms that are spending international moneys or whatever hiring security people that prepared mr chairman at this time to report any of the results but i just wished to inform that these are matters that we are looking into when we you think that you have some results on that particular inquiry sure i would  suggest perhaps within the next within the next month i think the sooner the better as rather alarming concept that could be looked at there if it's the taliban that are then turning around and focusing on our troops international troops and good thank you i'm particularly concerned about the police training and the army training as well that even more so about the police trained and i would hope that that's something that somebody in this group is going to look at with  here we are two thousand and nine there in the end and there's the police training of this corruption ranted on there there's seems to be i know there's a great plan the problem state has about training some people and switching a minute i think if we go on that basis by and thirty we ought to cover the country be ready to start again a lot and so that's the difficulty there who's taking the lead on determining what the status of training the police in afghanistan is we we will be following up on our path to work looking at the training and capabilities of the afghan national police right now where we are focusing our attention on the army but in the course of our follow up work and in future work we will definitely pay attention to the security capability that we have a number of substantial witnesses before this committee who are quite knowledgeable about counterinsurgency and other area tell us that the police are as important more important than the military and that's i would hope that we could at least simultaneously as opposed to stacking the military first on the other and we've seen our own visits over there and talk to different people there that it's critical that be done at the local population doesn't have any confidence in the legitimacy of their police force we know too well that of the thirty eight billion to which i made earlier reference that the united states has invested and reconstructing afghanistan over half are about half of that money about eighteen billion really has gone towards the  afghanistan national security forces and a large body of our work is has been done is ongoing and will be done to address the significance of that element of funding for the reconstruction but the fear is this there's a large amount of money that's gone into a that that portion that was designated toward the secure the police may not be an investment may have been wasted and that when you look at the state of affairs of the police in afghanistan hard pressed to call that an investment to date so the idea would be to get a report as quickly as possible on that as to what would turn that into an investment that would have some positive results because we don't do that all the people that we have over there not just our military people but all the people that work for december well thank you for that should this ego our role be extended to cover pakistan as well or how we're going to address all of our oversight issues in pakistan inextricable linkage between afghanistan and pakistan the fact that if the extension of our mandate is similar to that which we currently have which allows us to look across agencies we think that's of considerable benefit we believe also that in spite of our relatively meager numbers right now we could almost immediately commence some degree of oversight of spending in afghanistan and over a period of time with increased funding leading to increased numbers of audited inspect all genevive to guitars build to a more substantial effort to address this matter  underscore the significance of oversight which in the case of afghanistan may have started before seagal but not at the time at which we began to invest in difficulty in the reconstruction of afghanistan and so we would not like to see this you and i guess there were many many more in the iraq office on that but given that criticism if you address that of the dress with to be enough personnel enough capacity in the special inspector general's office in afghanistan to actually go over into criticism frankly mr chairman it's not unexpected we were late in getting funding to support our effort but this congress has not provided the funding particularly as a part of the seven point two million dollars we received which complimented the sixteen million that we had previously been provided that really has rounded us to higher on the people that we inform the congress last year about this time that we wanted to hire to get our work done so  are we are hiring the right folks to do the job we are not suggesting that we have excess capacity but we also just think that it would be advantageous to the oversight community if  we were to like the oversight of pakistan that of afghanistan and given our now almost full year of funded oversight work we feel that that's that perspective is a valid one hundred ten foreign service officers civil service employees what's the breakdown of that how many of those are civil service employees and how many of our service offices one hundred twenty five ballpark are foreign service the rest are civil service so they process of staffing up i mean our budgets have been increased we are getting the funding i believe we're in the process of trying to hire another twenty more twenty waters and foreign service mainly foreign service having if their foreign service officers they have to be actually cleared both cleared medically for example to go to anywhere we we have offices or where we work if it weren't for the fact that you are inviting them to go to afghanistan or pakistan how many of that well what about a club in fact or their well the one we're dealing with private accounting firms it's difficult to tell from the corruption sample we provide them training and  contract with them to go places for example to find out where where we can't go and both for financial audits and we're actually actually going to go and look at programs for my performance standpoint to see if the building is built and that is because we're not doing it we always be having recommendations that are now going to be implemented years later instead of putting the resources in place additionally before we wrap up the flow of resources to these areas  and my concern now is if there is a real shift in focus now it's pack abs and our resources are flowing through pakistan that we're going to be in a situation a couple years from now where we all the put your resources in place the focus is pack abs we already know there are certain areas where we really aren't getting good information and i guess some of us are a little skeptical that that will be the case that we will be a for here where we need to make oversight decisions of the day decisions that the situation is such where we simply can't to kill rather than a few years later well we're now catching up or trying to catch up to put these this framework in place where we can expand because they've got to give me any confidence that if that shift now is a pack av ad are we going to put the right framework in place in pakistan in the areas that are concerning to us before we expend the money not after bastardizing i don't know that i'm ready to assure you that everything is going to be fine in fact i know i'm not but what i can tell you is at the request of ambassador and patterson who was one of my successors the first time that i was acting i g she she followed jackie our middle east regional office is going to conduct a review of this fall of the current management control environment at its embassy is lam anticipation just as you said of the significant increase in funding and program implementation during the next five years and as i told you we have moved up a inspection of the embassy in pakistan just for that reason for that reason to try and get ahead of the curve first we're still talking about a middle east office when we're talking about central asia and it's a little concerning that we have  some sort of legislative mandate here that money's not be distributed in dispersed until we're satisfied with reports back from you folks that in fact effective management controls are in place for this assistance and that would be something you'd probably want to look to report to all of you i think it's great that ambassador patterson who is what i can tell is doing a good job at a difficult situation there that she's not going to evaluate whether the pakistan agencies and non governmental organization have the capabilities to ensure that pro management controls are in place and funds used as intended i wish her predecessors had done that starting back at the beginning of the decade and we would be in a situation now but it seems to me that that's the key here that they are doing it and that they have the capacity to do it that we can have some reliability and trust in them doing that in and i'm reluctant to think that we ought to be spending this money we'll put this money appropriated perhaps a citizen where to get some indication from all of you that those things are in place and ready to go otherwise i think  the security issue that this way is bridges puts an i v and other factor on that and talk about that so i think they've given us great food for thought on a number of different areas here today because i haven't heard a great deal of comment that gives us confidence that that is in case issued in may of this year it's class but it was an assessment a review of all of the d o d managed funds and programs that exist in pakistan it's follow on to that point is as long as i have your attention with mr head elder protective equipment for our troops is somebody investigating whether or not there is sufficient stand is for that equipment whether the troops are getting the equipment a timely fashion you're asking whether or not the troops are getting that see whether or not we have somebody investigating or looking into whether or not they are getting the necessary protective gear and equipment they need to do their jobs at a timely fashion absolutely we have actually done a fair amount of work in we found concerns in iraq we believe that those have been addressed by the department we found issues not just with routine equipment but we found with up armored vehicles with armor  we're continuing to address those issues at the same time we're monitoring the department that is also continuing to address those issues and we're hopeful that the lessons we've learned in iraq are being carried forward into afghanistan but these are complex issues for instance up armored vehicles what what may have been very effective in iraq because of the train in afghanistan may require very different resources so we're continuing to follow that it is a concern of ours and we can report in the future on what we appreciate that mr chairman g a o is also currently undertaking a review looking at the supply and equipping of u s forces we're looking at what challenges are presented and to what extent lessons have been learned from operation iraqi freedom we are also looking at the army and marine corps training and capacity and what lessons can be learned as they look to migrate from iraq to afghanistan so we will be reporting on them both of those issues in the near future does that hold true as well on medical attention to troops in the field so we're looking at the capacity we have to improve that situation as well  maintaining enough independence to be able to stand aside and report something when somebody else may not have gotten to it yet or may not have done it in a way that that we think it should have been done because they have capacity issues and training issues whatever  yes i believe yes all of your questions you will know those in the quarterly reports is bigger and our joint sub group report that g a o in very limited instances has identified plan to general authority we do so because we are addressing the interests and the needs of the myriad committees who have jurisdiction over the issues of u s engagement involved and surrounding u s engagement in these countries and so we respond not only to your interests we respond to the congressional mandate as well as areas in need of follow up so we maintain some flexibility in planning out our work to be most responsive and timely in responding to your needs so we assure our independence in that way from the others who have similar missions but different clients will not ask you to answer the subject matter of my next question but do you mean opinion as to whether or not you can answer it and will be able to work with us will you afghanistan to include three visits with president karzai himself each time we visit not just i but i and my staff visit we get this we receive this issue of afghanistan we want to be more involved in the reconstruction of the country so i say this because i applaud really what the ambassador i can barry has put forth as what he would like to see as the way ahead and being more inclusive of the people of afghanistan this matter is resident and no less to document that i am mandated in my legislation to oversee the afghanistan compact and the afghanistan national development strategy this is a bold move yes oversight will be even more important one thing we are doing as a part of seagal is to determine the extent to which those controls are in place those management systems necessary to ensure the american taxpayer that his and her money will be spent wisely and for the purposes made available by this very congress so we are on top of that and we will provide those that feedback accordingly well we're going to need it because i think ms williams rogers pointed out very clearly that you could down that path and you want to pass your money through that government to enhance its legitimacy that we had done well that to be sure that we have some safeguards in place i was being spent given the current state of mr karzai government and the individuals that he has invited into dissipate in that and their reputation for corruption and that i think we should be more than a little bit wary about just blocking the money over and hoping for the best that we don't need the advice and counsel of all of you to give us a very firm commitment on that that if we're going to try and buttress that government even some of the provincial and district governments on that we know who are dealing with we have in place a safeguards on that and we have a strict monitoring day by day so that we can pull the plug on it and we need to it is if it starts to go south on us or else i think we're all going to be to fulfill are going to spend a lot of money that this country needs trying to do a national security issue that we also  four we monitoring that and updating our monitoring of how that's being spent and what results we're getting from it i know that previous reports have not really seen a real tight accounting on that i think my colleague  something about it sir but let me go ahead and say since the green light is on for me at the moment we have just completed an audit of shop and we have found certain strengths and of course as one might expect certain we can weaknesses in the oversight of that spending we will report out on this by the close of business day all within the next twenty four hours that awesome issues to which we are report i think goes back to zero seven and we found administrative weaknesses we had concerns in fact fifteen of sixteen page did not have adequate storage for cash and other top of that and we will have additional work to be done in the future that will go take a look at the inspector general's report and the kind of those reports in your most recent reports even though they're a little dated on that or whatever editor whether or not we think there's need for another hearing or whether or reflection my opinion is not a reflection on the fine work that general field or his staff does but i think in a general sense that the statutory i g f here present and others that when that work in that will  work in pakistan have the ability and the expertise to provide the oversight if given the resources and the funding to do so whether you know the congress wants to establish another inspector general a special inspector general that area certainly you know that political decision be made but but i for one think that that we as a group can actually provide the oversight that's that's necessary thank you well thank all of you for your testimony today for your expertise is a tremendous help as we're trying to perform our job and what gets to be a complex and growing universe of the events on that so that our appreciation will continue to work with you i look forward to doing that and i wish you all a good day for the rest the day thank you thank you