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S. Hrg. 113–424 

IMPLEMENTATION OF WARTIME CONTRACTING 

REFORMS 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL AND 

CONTRACTING OVERSIGHT 

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON 

HOMELAND SECURITY AND 

GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

JULY 16, 2013 

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.fdsys.gov 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Homeland Security 

and Governmental Affairs 

( 
(II) 

COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS 

THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware Chairman 

CARL LEVIN, Michigan 

MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas 

MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana 

CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri 

JON TESTER, Montana 

MARK BEGICH, Alaska 

TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin 

HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota 

TOM COBURN, Oklahoma 

JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona 

RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin 

ROB PORTMAN, Ohio 

RAND PAUL, Kentucky 

MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming 

KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire 

GABRIELLE A. BATKIN, Staff Director 

JOHN P. KILVINGTON, Deputy Staff Director 

KEITH B. ASHDOWN, Minority Staff Director 

LAURA W. KILBRIDE, Chief Clerk 

LAUREN M. CORCORAN, Hearing Clerk 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL AND CONTRACTING OVERSIGHT 

CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Chairman 

CARL LEVIN, Michigan 

MARK L. PRYOR, Arkansas 

MARY L. LANDRIEU, Louisiana 

MARK BEGICH, Alaska 

TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin 

RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin 

JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona 

MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming 

KELLY AYOTTE, New Hampshire 

MARGARET DAUM, Majority Staff Director 

RACHEL WEAVER, Minority Staff Director 

KELSEY STROUD, Chief Clerk 
(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Opening statement: Page 

Senator McCaskill ............................................................................................ 1 

Senator Johnson ............................................................................................... 2 

WITNESSES 

TUESDAY, JULY 16, 2013 

Richard T. Ginman, Director, Defense Procurement and Acquisition Policy, 

U.S. Department of Defense ................................................................................ 4 

Hon. Patrick F. Kennedy, Under Secretary of State for Management, U.S. 

Department of State ............................................................................................ 5 

Aman S. Djahanbani, Senior Procurement Executive and Director, Office 

of Acquisition and Assistance, U.S. Agency for International Development ... 7 

ALPHABETICAL LIST OF WITNESSES

Djahanbani, Aman S.: 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 7 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 65 

Ginman, Richard T.: 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 4 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 35 

Kennedy, Hon. Patrick F.: 

Testimony .......................................................................................................... 5 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 57 

APPENDIX 

Information from Mr. Kennedy to Senator McCaskill ................................... 73 

Information from Mr. Ginman to Senator Johnson ....................................... 74 

Executive Office of the President, prepared statement ................................. 75 

Information submitted by Senator Johnson ................................................... 79 

SIGAR Report, prepared statement ................................................................ 85 

POGO Report, prepared statement ................................................................. 91 

Responses to post-hearing questions for the Record: 

Mr. Ginman ....................................................................................................... 93 

Mr. Kennedy ..................................................................................................... 120 

Mr. Djahanbani ................................................................................................. 146 

(1) 

IMPLEMENTATION OF WARTIME 

CONTRACTING REFORMS 

TUESDAY, JULY 16, 2013 

U.S. SENATE,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON FINANCIAL AND CONTRACTING OVERSIGHT

OF THE COMMITTEE ON HOMELAND SECURITY

AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS,

Washington, DC. 

The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:33 a.m., in room 

SD–342, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Claire McCaskill, 

Chairman of the Subcommittee, presiding. 

Present: Senators McCaskill, Johnson, Ayotte, and Coburn. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR MCCASKILL 

Senator MCCASKILL. Good morning. Thank you all for being here. 

I thank Senator Johnson for attending this morning. 

It is hard to believe that I have been at this for over 6 years 

working on wartime contracting. It has been in many ways a roller 

coaster ride. 

There have been days that I thought there was no hope and then 

there are other days when we were able to get so many of these 

provisions finally into law that I thought we were really rounding 

the corner; and today we are here to examine if, in fact, we have 

turned a corner or if we still have a lot of work to do. 

We are going to today review the implementation of the wartime 

contracting reforms mandated in last year’s National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) and to address a couple of current contracting issues that have come up. 

On August 31, 2011, the Commission on Wartime Contracting 

(CWC) in Iraq and Afghanistan presented its final report to Congress. On February 29, 2012, Senator Webb and I introduced S. 

2139, the Comprehensive Contingency Contract and Reform Act of 

2012, which was based on the findings and recommendations of the 

Commission. 

Just so everyone remembers, Senator Webb and I began in 2007 

when we arrived in the Senate as new freshman working on getting a War Contracting Commission that could look extensively at 

issues of how we contract during times of war. 

The provisions of the Comprehensive Contingency Contracting 

Reform Act, which were based on the findings of that Commission, 

were incorporated in the fiscal year (FY) 2013 NDAA that was 

signed into law January 2 of this year. 
2 

A few of the provisions had reporting requirements that were 

due earlier this month and several of those provisions have targets 

to be met by the end of this year. 

This morning we have representatives of the Defense Department (DOD), State Department, and the United States Agency for 

International Development (USAID) here to testify about how their 

respective agencies are complying with the wartime contracting 

provisions. 

Based on the reports that these agencies have made to Congress, 

they are working to implement these provisions. I am encouraged 

by their progress. However, there is still a long way to go. 

The majority of the provisions in the law passed last year apply 

only to future contingencies. Unfortunately, they do not apply to 

Afghanistan now where we are continuing to hear about contracting problems. 

I learned just this week that the Defense Department spent millions to construct a building in Afghanistan that has never been 

used. This facility was built despite the fact that the forward commanders said they neither needed nor wanted this facility in May 

2010, almost a full year before construction began. 

We now have a brand-new state-of-the-art building that cost the 

taxpayers $34 million to build. The worst part is that all indications are they are going to tear it down. We cannot even give it 

away to the Afghanistan government for free because they do not 

want a building that they will have to spend millions to rewire because it was built to U.S. electrical code. 

I also recently learned that more than $13 million may have 

been wasted on a USAID agricultural development contract with a 

company called Chemonics. The waste alone is bad enough but the 

Special Inspector General (SIG) also found that the contractor 

failed to cooperate with the audit. Frankly, that is just unacceptable. 

I will also ask questions about the security of our embassy in 

Kabul. The Subcommittee first held a hearing on this topic in 2009 

and I continue to have serious concerns regarding that contract. 

These examples illustrate why it is so important that contracting 

reforms passed this year are fully implemented and our government has learned the lessons finally once and for all of Kosovo, 

Iraq, and Afghanistan. I plan to continue to hold hearings like this 

one until that time comes. 

The Office of Federal Procurement Policy (OFPP) has provided a 

letter regarding their implementation of the war contracting provisions. I ask unanimous consent that this be included in the hearing 

record. 

I thank the witnesses for being here today and I look forward to 

their testimony. Senator Johnson. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR JOHNSON. 

Senator JOHNSON. Thank you, Madam Chairman. 

It is interesting, the couple of examples you did bring out that 

I would like to reinforce a little bit. The $34 million building, 

64,000 square feet, what is just depressing about that is the commanders tried to stop its construction. 
3 

It was originally proposed in February 2010. By May 2010, they 

said they really do not want it, but in February 2011 it was contracted out and we went ahead and produced it or constructed it 

at a cost of $531 per square foot. 

Now, I have done a lot of construction for, plants, pretty complex 

manufacturing structures. We have never had anything that cost 

$531. We checked with the National Association of Home Builders 

(NAHB). The average cost of a home is about $80 per square foot. 

So, there are so many problems with that example you raised. We 

will certainly have questions on that. 

You also talked about the security situation in the embassy in 

Kabul. There is a pretty interesting article that I would like to submit for the Record by the Project on Government Oversight 

(POGO). It was actually a report issued in January 2013. 

And, as you are reading that report, again this is contractor security and whistleblowers from that contract that are being fired for 

raising alarms about the lack of security. 

And, what is alarming to me is, as I am hearing in this report, 

the response of the State Department saying that it takes very seriously the concerns of the Aegis personnel but at the same time 

those people are being fired. 

It is eerily similar to what we heard in terms of the security 

around the embassy or the consulate in Benghazi and the resulting 

tragedy of that. So, I am going to have a number of questions about 

that situation as well. 

Madam Chairman, I really commend your efforts in holding 

hearings like this. Our hearing yesterday, we just hear the same 

problems time and time again, the lack of accountability, the lack 

of incentives to do things in a cost efficient manner; and when it 

comes to talking about protecting our personnel in very dangerous 

places, it seems like we are going to make the same mistakes time 

and time again. 

So, this is a very timely airing. I am looking forward to the testimony of the witnesses and I certainly appreciate you coming here 

to testify. Thank you. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Thank you, and let me introduce the witnesses. Richard Ginman serves as Director of Defense Procurement 

and Acquisition Policy (DPAP). He retired as a rear admiral from 

the U.S. Navy after 30 years of service in 2000. Prior to assuming 

his current position, he served as Principal Deputy to the Director 

from 2008 until 2010 and Deputy Director of Contingency Contracting and Acquisition Policy from 2010 until becoming the Director in June 2011. 

Patrick Kennedy has served as Under Secretary for Management 

in the U.S. State Department since 2007. He has been with the Department of State for 39 years and has held positions including Director of the Office Management Policy, rightsizing innovation, Assistant Secretary for Administration, U.S. Representative to the 

U.N. for Management and Reform, Chief of Staff of the Coalition 

Provisional Authority in Iraq and Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Management. 

Aman Djahanbani is the Senior Procurement Executive, Chief 

Acquisition Officer and Director of the Office of Acquisition and assistance at USAID. Before assuming his current position, Mr. 
4 

1The prepared statement of Mr. Ginman appears in the Appendix on page 35. 

Djahanbani worked overseas as a supervisory contracting officer for 

USAID. He began his procurement career with the U.S. Department of Defense where he worked for more than a decade at the 

Naval Regional Contracting Center in Saudi Arabia and Singapore. 

It is the custom of the Subcommittee to swear all witnesses that 

appear. I would ask you to stand and do you swear the testimony 

that you give before this Subcommittee will be the truth, the whole 

truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you, God? 

Mr. GINMAN. I do. 

Mr. KENNEDY. I do. 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. I do. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Let the record reflect that the witnesses 

have all answered in the affirmative. 

We will be using a timing system. Five minutes give or take. Mr. 

Ginman, if you would go ahead with your testimony. Thank you 

very much. 

TESTIMONY OF RICHARD T. GINMAN,1 DIRECTOR, DEFENSE 

PROCUREMENT AND ACQUISITION POLICY, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE 

Mr. GINMAN. Chairman McCaskill, Senator Johnson, distinguished Members of the Subcommittee. I welcome this opportunity 

to discuss the Department of Defense’s ‘‘Implementation of Wartime Contracting Reforms.’’ You asked me to address 14 provisions 

in the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2013. 

Each provision is covered in my written testimony and I asked that 

it be submitted for the record. 

Senator MCCASKILL. It will. 

Mr. GINMAN. The Department has made a number of improvements to operational contract support (OCS) for short, based on 

independent reviews such as the Commission on Wartime Contracting, the Gansler Commission, and various Inspector General 

reports as well as the Department’s own analysis. 

From the top down, the Department is committed to ensuring 

support for our warfighters through contracts that are carefully 

planned for, executed, and monitored. This applies to the current 

mission in Afghanistan as well as to future conflicts. 

The Department established a permanent board to oversee our 

progress in improving OCS capability. The board identified 10 capability areas requiring improvement and more than 140 individual actions. I provided your staff the entire action plan last 

week for your review. 

Also, the Department is engaged in Better Buying Power Initiatives to obtain greater efficiency and productivity in our spending. 

We take seriously our charge to protect public funds. 

In addition, the Department works with its civilian agency colleagues on Federal-wide initiatives, interagency topics, and ensuring lessons learned. This includes working with the Department of 

State and USAID, who are here with me today. 

Some improvements in contingency and conventional contracting 

have required congressional assistance. We appreciate this Sub-
5 

1The prepared statement of Mr. Kennedy appears in the Appendix on page 57. 

committee’s continued strong support not only for necessary legislation but also for our deployed forces both military and civilian. 

The Department is focused on meeting the warfighters current 

and future needs while judiciously managing the Department’s resources and balancing risk. Much has been accomplished but, of 

course, challenges remain. 

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the Department’s implementation of wartime contracting legislation and I welcome your questions. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Yes. 

TESTIMONY OF THE HON. PATRICK F. KENNEDY,1 UNDER SECRETARY OF STATE FOR MANAGEMENT, U.S. DEPARTMENT 

OF STATE 

Mr. KENNEDY. Good morning, Madam Chairman, Senator Johnson, Senator Ayotte. Thank you for inviting me here today to discuss the Department of State’s implementation of contingency contracting provisions in the fiscal year 2013 National Defense Authorization Act, a matter that I know is of particular interest to the 

Chair. 

State takes this contracting responsibility seriously and is always 

seeking improvements. Directly after the enactment of the 2013 

NDAA, State formed three working groups to focus on risk assessment for contingency contracting, contracting management, and 

our acquisitions and contracts management workforce. 

The results were incorporated into our Section 850 report which 

was sent to the Congress last month. The working groups found 

that State’s structure and processes support our national security 

mission and that our centralized acquisitions office, based in Washington, D.C., and our two Regional Procurement Support Offices 

support our contingency contracting requirements. 

The working groups continue meeting to advance the implementation of the NDAA provisions, and we are working with Government Accountability Office (GAO) on their Section 850 engagement. 

The Department continues making improvements to its contracting program. The Office of Acquisitions Management continues 

to hire contracting staff. We have emphasized increasing the number of Contracting Officer Representatives (COR) in our regional 

and functional bureaus for the day-to-day contract oversight. 

We have improved COR training and established a COR Advisory Board to share best practices. 

State is establishing a Contract Management Office in Kuwait to 

support our Iraq operations and this could be a model for future 

contingencies. 

The State will examine using human resources flexibilities such 

as recruitment, retention, and relocation incentives to ensure expedient hiring for contract oversight functions. As flagged by GAO, 

State issues guidance to strengthen management of interagency acquisition agreements as working with DOD on overall coordinating 

arrangements. 

Regarding our NDAA sections, State examined its use of Synchronized Pre-Deployment Operational Tracker (SPOT) under Sec-
6 

tion 844. We believe SPOT is the preferred system for tracking personnel under contingency contracts and are working to improve 

data quality. 

We are also working with DOD to integrate data from the Federal Procurement Data System (FPDS) automatically into SPOT. 

We continue using SPOT reporting to Congress with DOD and 

USAID per Section 847. 

We are evaluating our risk management processes under Section 

846 and are looking at more formally establishing a centralized 

risk management unit at State. 

The new responsibilities of the Chief Acquisition Officer (CAO) 

under Section 849 have been specifically incorporated into those of 

State’s Chief Information Officer (CIO). 

Per Section 861, we have designated a Suspension and Debarment Official (SDO) who is not part of either the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) or the Office of Acquisitions. This SDO is 

supported by a newly added suspension and debarment program 

manager who works only on S and D matters. Per the GAO, successful S and D programs have dedicated resources, detailed policies, and a referral process. 

State has all three and we have gone from zero suspensions and 

two debarments in fiscal year 2008 to three suspensions and 31 

debarments to date in fiscal year 2013. 

Several sections of the bill, namely 802, 852, and 853 promote 

governmentwide changes and need incorporation into the Federal 

Acquisition Regulations (FAR). State is an active member of the Civilian Agency Acquisition Council (CAAC) and is working on these 

matters as detailed in my written statement which I hope would 

be entered into the Record. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Without objection it will be. 

Mr. KENNEDY. Under Section 862, the State is working with the 

Office of Federal Procurement Policy and the interagency in developing standards to ensure continued alignment of our existing contract writing system with any new governmentwide data standards 

that might be developed. 

Under Section 1273, the Department of State will undertake assessments to ensure that a capital project that is both requested 

by the host government and can be sustained by it. Since NDAA 

enactment, State has not undertaken any capital projects that 

would trigger the need for an assessment. 

With regard to private security contractors (PSCs), I know that 

the Chair has concerns PSCs providing security at posts such as 

Kabul, and I will be glad to answer any questions. 

The State Department has used the guards for the protection of 

our facilities and personnel since the 1970s. PSCs are critical to 

our readiness and capability to carry out American foreign policy 

under dangerous and uncertain security conditions. 

We fully appreciate the need for robust oversight of PSCs. Particularly in conflict areas, contractors are operationally overseeing 

and contractually managed by direct hire State personnel. My written testimony describes our oversight message. 

Currently in Kabul, we have a well managed, effectively functioning contract that provides security to protect our people and facilities. 
7 

1The prepared statement of Mr. Djahanbani appears in the Appendix on page 65. 

In conclusion, while we recognize that State’s contracting organization is organized effectively to undertake both routine and contingency contracting, we know and we believe that we must strive 

to learn from past practices and to better align contingency contracting especially with the guidance of the 2013 NDAA provisions. 

The Department will continue to refine its processes, procedures 

and strategies to ensure that adequate resources and oversight 

mechanisms are in place for future contingencies. 

I stand ready to answer any questions that you might have, 

Madam Chairman. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Thank you, Secretary Kennedy. 

Yes, Mr. Djahanbani. 

TESTIMONY OF AMAN S. DJAHANBANI,1 SENIOR PROCUREMENT EXECUTIVE AND DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF ACQUISITION 

AND ASSISTANCE, U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. Chairman McCaskill, Ranking Member Johnson, thank you for the opportunity to discuss the actions the U.S. 

Agency for International Development has taken to implement the 

contracting reform provisions passed into law in the fiscal year 

2013 National Defense Authorization Act. I will briefly summarize 

my remarks and asked that my full statement be entered into the 

record. 

USAID welcomes the Subcommittee’s continued interest in these 

matters. Our agency has thousands of personnel working in more 

than 80 missions worldwide to improve the economic environment, 

global health, food security, and overall development of these nations in support of U.S. foreign policy. 

This means that we are often operating in areas of conflict and 

contingencies. So, we as an agency and I personally recognize and 

support the emphasis on greater accountability, sustainable results, and compliance that the provisions have brought forth. 

I came into my current position with more than 25 years of interagency contracting experience including in contingency operations. 

I started my career with the Department of Defense; and since 

joining the foreign service in 1998, I have served in missions from 

Ghana to Peru to Jordan and recently spent 2 years as the supervisory contracting officer in Pakistan. 

I have personal experience with many of the real issues facing 

our program offices today and fully support the intent and spirit 

of this legislation. 

Over the last several years, USAID has undertaken an aggressive series of reforms called USAID Forward. I am proud and honored to say that many of our USAID Forward efforts are in line 

with your legislation. The provision provide solutions to some of the 

most important issues that we continue to face in our engagements 

in Afghanistan and Iraq and foster a better environment for contingency contracting in the future. In fact, we have proactively implemented many of these reforms over the last few years. 

The last time USAID appeared before you we told the Subcommittee we were exploring ways in which we could strengthen 
8 

the independent authority of our agency suspension and debarment 

official. While our current structure meets the requirements of the 

provisions, USAID is transferring the duties out of the procurement office to a senior official within the Bureau for Management. 

Additionally in 2011, Administrator Shah issued the USAID sustainable guidance for Afghanistan aimed at ensuring programs are 

sustainable and closely aligned with the United States and Afghan 

national priorities. 

We are conducting regular reviews of our projects and have 

taken actions to cancel projects where necessary including some infrastructure road programs like the Bamyan-Dushi Road in Afghanistan. 

We also have modified some projects midway to increase their 

sustainable results while preserving the existing investment of 

American taxpayer dollars. 

The bottom line is that we are learning from the past and 

leveraging lessons from Iraq and Afghanistan to build a stronger 

foundation for effective, accountable contracting practices. 

Sustainability is undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges we 

face during a time of war or conflict. However, we as an agency 

have a core belief that it is imperative for not only contingency operations but for all of our operations. It is one of the key pillars 

of USAID Forward. 

It is also a focus area of the agency’s new senior management accountability review process in which all new awards at the $25 million level will be validated by an Assistant Administrator to ensure 

the project meets Federal accountability criteria including a demonstrated commitment to sustainable results. Additionally, the Administrator himself will provide the final authorization to make an 

award at or above $75 million. 

USAID has also developed for the first time ever a corporate 

level acquisition and assistance plan that allows us to see all procurements across the agencies worldwide operations. This plan has 

helped create transparency throughout the agency and has contributed significantly to streamline, more effective implementing mechanisms. 

USAID continues to be a world-class development agency and is 

proudly taking actions to implement reforms to strengthen our contracting practices. 

With regard to your specific legislation, my written statement details the actions we are taking as an agency to implement them, 

and I am happy to address any particular section you like. 

I want to thank you for this opportunity to discuss these actions 

and to receive input from you and your staff. We are all working 

toward the same goals to increasing accountability, sustainable results, and compliance across the spectrum of not only contingency 

contracting but all government contracting. 

Thank you again and I look forward to our discussion. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Thank you very much. Let me start before 

I begin asking questions and acknowledge that everyone is making 

progress. I mean, these hearings, as you all are painfully aware 

from my perspective, are all about making a point and holding your 

feet to the fire and so my questions, some of them are going to be 
9 

tough but I did want to acknowledge at the beginning of the questioning that we are making progress. 

It is much better than it was in 2007 in every single one of your 

agencies but I have to start with obviously the awkward situation 

that I find myself in that, having been reassured by the Defense 

Department over and over and over again that sustainability is always considered in, I mean, when we argued with them about what 

kind of sustainability analysis, oh, I was reassured, oh, we always 

do sustainability. 

Well, clearly we have a brand-new building that the right-hand 

did not know what the left-hand was doing or, even worse, the 

right-hand ignored the left-hand which were the commanders on 

the ground. 

Let me give you an opportunity, Mr. Ginman, to explain how in 

the world this thing got built when the people on the ground were 

saying stop, do not do this, we do not need it, and it will not be 

used. 

Mr. GINMAN. I do not have an explanation and it is very difficult 

to sit here and say that at least as it is reported and clearly we 

now have a building that is not needed and I do not know how it 

will be finally disposed of. 

I do know the Army has initiated, it is called an Army Regulation 15–6 Investigation to go through all of the analysis and what 

it is; and until those facts are actually reported out, and that investigation is done, I do not think the Department is in a position to 

be able to state unequivocally what actually occurred and why and 

who was accountable. 

But certainly in the face of being told we do not need this and 

then proceeding, that just does not make sense. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Especially when you look at the time period 

that passed before the contract was given and if you get a headsup in May 2010 that the building is not needed and the contracts 

are not executed until the following year, it really shows a systemic 

issue on this and it is what I said about the Commander’s Emergency Response Program (CERP) and the son of CERP and, as you 

know, the Afghanistan infrastructure fund where are we are doing 

this and frankly we have the same thing when we look at the 

Chemonics audit at AID. 

I think you probably know this without me saying it that I am 

not going to stop on this until I know who it was that failed to read 

the file or who it was that said go ahead and let the contract without doing due diligence about the necessity of the building. And, by the way, the sad thing here is to most Americans $34 

million sounds like a lot of money. You know what I am worried 

about? I am worried about the people who are making these decisions, this is chump change. 

Mr. GINMAN. Yes, ma’am. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Who cares about the $34 million; it is only 

$34 million. 

Mr. GINMAN. What I do know is over the course of the last 18 

months, the theater has done four separate reviews of the 

MILCON budget, and has taken either descoped or canceled $1.4 

billion worth of MILCON projects. That is somewhere in excess of 

a hundred separate projects. 
10 

I also know that to NATO Training Mission Afghanistan/Combined Security Transition Command Afghanistan (NTM–A CSTC– 

A), the group that does the procurements for Afghanistan, has done 

a series of reviews and has taken $2.5 billion dollars out of that 

project, excuse me, totally out of that project, and that General 

Dunford has kicked off a fifth review once again in MILCON just 

to ensure that we are not doing this. 

So, how this one went through, I just cannot sit here and give 

you an explanation. 

Senator MCCASKILL. I am on the edge of my seat—— 

Mr. GINMAN. Yes, ma’am. 

Senator MCCASKILL [continuing]. To get this information. Please 

explain to everyone that the more quickly we can do this I think 

it is pretty important that we come up with an answer to the question, how did this happen sooner rather than later because of every 

day that passes that we do not know the answer, it makes me very 

nervous that it is happening in other places. 

Mr. GINMAN. I am told that the expected due date for the report 

with completed analysis is somewhere in the next 30 to 60 days. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Let me move over to Mr. Djahanbani. I have 

read the Chemonics audit. Have you read it? 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. Yes, ma’am. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Do you think all the people that work for 

you have read it? 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. Yes, Madam Chairman, I am pretty sure. 

Senator MCCASKILL. I worry that these audits do not get read. 

That was always something that bugged me when I was doing audits that we worked very hard and one of the performance goals 

I had when I was an auditor is how do we get people to read them. 

When I read this audit, first of all, what actions have been taken 

against this contractor for their failure to cooperate with an audit? 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. Madam Chairman, we are taking the Special 

Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR’s) concerns very seriously and we have recently received this audit. The 

mission is reviewing it very carefully because again it is an odd situation that Chemonics that we do business with would not want 

to cooperate with the auditors. 

So, Madam Chairman, if you could, if I could get back to you, our 

offices with your office, to understand the case, to read it, and assess it, and understand the situation because we are very concerned about this. If I may, it does not pass the commonsense test 

at this point. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Well, and I want to make sure that, as we 

look at and I will spend more time on this in the second round 

about the systems that we are trying to put in place in terms of 

bad performance by contractors, debarment and suspension, that a 

failure to cooperate with an audit needs to be part of a bad performance. It needs to be taken into consideration as to their future 

eligibility for contracts. 

The other thing I want to drill down on in this particular con- tract is really the $64 question about that contract and that is, I 

would like to know from your agency how much money have we 

spent trying to get the Afghanistan people to quit growing poppy 

over the last 20 years? 
11 

How many billions of dollars have we spent trying to move them 

off of poppy and what are the performance metrics in that regard? 

How much success have we really had? 

And, I am not really sure how building public parks gets them 

off growing poppy which was part of this contract. I get distributing wheat seed and fertilizer is. I get building an agricultural 

center and teaching them ways to make money off of an agricultural economy other than poppy. 

But, at what point do we throw in the towel? I bet if we take 

a look at the amount of money we have spent trying to get them 

off poppy over the last 20 years, I think probably if we look at the 

numbers, I hope I will be surprised that we had success but I think 

this may go under the headline of how long we will hit our head 

against the brick wall much to the detriment of the American taxpayer. 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. Madam Chairman, I would like to get you the 

right numbers and if I may get those numbers for you for the 

record I would like to do that. 

Senator MCCASKILL. OK. We will followup on that. Senator Johnson. 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. Thank you. 

Senator JOHNSON. Thank you, Madam Chairman. 

Mr. Ginman, you did realize that we were going to be asking about that $34 million building, correct? 

Mr. GINMAN. Yes, sir. 

Senator JOHNSON. Did you make any phone calls prior to this 

hearing to get prepared to answer the question? 

Mr. GINMAN. Yes, I did. 

Senator JOHNSON. What did you learn other than you are just 

going to take another 30 to 60 days? 

Mr. GINMAN. Well, so, I did learn there was an investigation ongoing, and the findings of what is in that investigation I do not yet 

have. They have not been published. 

Senator JOHNSON. Why does it take so long to get to the bottom 

of something that in industry, trust me, if somebody built a $34 

million building and I told them not to build it and it still got built, 

I would know who made that decision very quickly. I would know 

within a day. I would know within a few hours. Why is it so impossible to get the questions answered in the government? 

Mr. GINMAN. I guess I will step way back. Having been a part 

of a Navy JAG manual investigation for a $400,000 embezzlement 

in the dispersing office, it took us about 30 to 60 days to go through 

and actually find the individuals, many whom had left the ship and 

to be able to go back through the whole thing, and get all of that. 

So, many of the people I am sure that they are now trying to figure 

out where are they now, who are they—— 

Senator JOHNSON. There is a chain of command for this, correct? 

Mr. GINMAN. Yes. 

Senator JOHNSON. OK. We will get into that later. What we have 

is a basic lack of accountability in government, and that is why it 

is so out of control. I think, quite obviously David Axelrod was 

right. It is too vast, and that is a problem. 

Mr. Kennedy, talk about accountability. Prior to September 11, 

2012 terrorist attacks in Benghazi, did you at any time review the 
12 

March 28, 2012 or July 9, 2012 cables from Ambassadors Cretz and 

Stevens requesting additional security? Did you review those cables? 

Mr. KENNEDY. I believe I did, Senator, I do not have my 

Benghazi documents here with me what I can check—— 

Senator JOHNSON. You read those. OK. Did you discuss those requests with anyone, particularly did you discuss those with Secretary Clinton, Cheryl Mills, Deputy Secretary Nides or Deputy 

Secretary Burns? 

Mr. KENNEDY. No, sir. 

Senator JOHNSON. So, those cables and that information, those 

requests for security stopped with you? 

Mr. KENNEDY. I guess. 

Senator JOHNSON. They went no further? 

Mr. KENNEDY. We review them, Senator. I always have extensive 

discussions with my colleagues in the diplomatic security service. 

If matters rise to the point where we feel that we cannot mitigate 

and the risk based upon the intelligence that is available to us, we 

act. For example—— 

Senator JOHNSON. You took that responsibility on yourself then 

to deny those requests for additional security even though we knew 

those security situations were deteriorating. 

Mr. KENNEDY. First of all, Senator, the request in several of 

those cases in those cables, if my recollection is correct, and again 

I do not have them in front of me, were talking about security in 

Tripoli, in Tripoli, not in Benghazi. 

We reviewed the situation very carefully and, as I said, if we 

cannot mitigate the risk, just as we did in Damascus, Syria, we will 

close the post and move on. 

I will be glad to pull those cables as soon as I get back to my 

office and—— 

Senator JOHNSON. We have them and we will submit them for 

the Record. 

Senator JOHNSON. On April 19, 2012, the State Department responded to those requests. This cable informed embassy Tripoli 

that the Department would continue to withdraw security despite 

the Ambassador’s request. 

Did you at any time review or approve that cable, the April 19 

cable that, by the way, bore Secretary Clinton signature? 

Mr. KENNEDY. Again, Senator, that cable, if my recollection is 

correct, regards Tripoli, sir, our embassy in Tripoli not the temporary mission facility in Benghazi. 

Senator JOHNSON. In addition to the September 11 memo which 

basically said that the State Department did want to maintain a 

presence in Benghazi, did you at any time review, authorize, or direct the deployment or redeployment of diplomatic security agents 

in Libya prior to the September 11 terrorist attack? 

Mr. KENNEDY. Did I? No, sir, I did not withdraw any diplomatic, 

I never directed the withdrawal of any diplomatic security agents. 

Senator JOHNSON. Did you at any time communicate or confirm 

to the Defense Department that State Department would not be 

needing the site security team (SST) after August 2012, and if so, 

when? 
13 

Mr. KENNEDY. I did, sir. The SST was a Tripoli-based detachment that had been sent into Tripoli when we went into Tripoli. 

It consisted of eight shooters in effect plus explosive ordnance detection people, aviation experts, communications experts, medical 

experts, over the course of our standing up the embassy in Tripoli. 

No relation at all to Benghazi. 

In the process of standing up our embassy in Tripoli, the State 

Department replaced those individuals with State Department personnel. We had sent our own medical personnel. We sent in our 

own communications—— 

Senator JOHNSON. We will talk about why we are using State Department rather than military personnel for those types of situations. 

What is the current status of the employees named in the Accountability Review Board reports, specifically Eric Boswell, Scott 

Bultrowicz, Charlene Lamb and Raymond Maxwell? 

Mr. KENNEDY. They are on administrative leave. 

Senator JOHNSON. And being paid? 

Mr. KENNEDY. Yes, sir. 

Senator JOHNSON. Do we know what their next assignments are 

going to be? 

Mr. KENNEDY. No, sir, we do not. 

Senator JOHNSON. Were you fully aware of the deteriorating security situation in Benghazi? 

Mr. KENNEDY. I read the material, Senator, but there was no intelligence generated by either the State Department or by any 

other of our partners in the U.S. Government agency, DOD or the 

Intelligence Community (IC), that direct a threat of that nature 

that appeared in Benghazi. There was a rocket attack. There was 

a car bomb. 

Senator JOHNSON. Why would we actually ramped down the security in Benghazi when the people on the ground were asking for 

additional security? Why would we do that? 

Mr. KENNEDY. Senator, we did not ramp down the security in 

Benghazi. The examples you referred to earlier, particularly the 

SST, were personnel assigned to the embassy in Tripoli, not to the 

temporary mission facility in Benghazi. So, we did not remove people from Benghazi. 

Senator JOHNSON. What is the criteria the State Department 

uses in contracting out security versus using U.S. military? 

Mr. KENNEDY. It depends upon the host nation approvals. It depends upon funds availability. It depends upon the mission sets 

that are required. 

Senator JOHNSON. During the Foreign Relations Committee hearing when we were questioning Secretary Clinton, there were certainly accusations that one of the problems in Benghazi is the 

funds just simply were not available. I mean, it is true that if the 

State Department requests security from the military, they will 

provide that security and it does not cost the State Department a 

dime, correct? 

Mr. KENNEDY. That depends, Senator. Some military support is 

provided on a reimbursable basis and some support is provided on 

a non-reimbursable basis. It depends on the situation. Sometimes 

we pay; sometimes we do not. 
14 

Senator JOHNSON. What would have been the case in Benghazi? 

Mr. KENNEDY. I do not know because there was no request. 

Senator JOHNSON. You never requested it even though the security situation was—— 

Mr. KENNEDY. There was no request for military personnel in 

Benghazi. 

Senator JOHNSON. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Senator Ayotte. 

Senator AYOTTE. I want to thank the Chairman and the Ranking 

Member for holding this important meeting. I want to thank very 

much the witnesses for being here today. 

Mr. Ginman, let me just start with particularly contracting in Afghanistan and Section 841 provisions. Senator Brown and I know 

you have worked on this issue very closely—pushed to get the no 

contracting with the enemy provisions in because one of the issues 

we have had in Afghanistan, as I understand it, has been that 

some of the money was flowing into the hands of insurgents. Is 

that right? 

Can you describe for me how 841 has been used effectively to 

cutoff funds to insurgents? And then again Senator Blumenthal 

and I now have after a meeting I had with Major General Longo 

in Afghanistan in July now have provisions that will extend these 

authorities to the Department of State and USAID. 

So, I certainly will be asking both of you about that and also 

making sure that we can drop the amount from the threshold from 

100,000 to 20,000. 

So, can you talk to me about this issue, and I know that this is 

a very important issue to me and I am hoping that we will pass 

this legislation to further enhance these authorities. 

Mr. GINMAN. So, it was getting the legislation I think 2 years ago 

now was important to us. 

Senator AYOTTE. Right. 

Mr. GINMAN. It has been used 11 times. Ten times with subcontractors and one time with a prime to a total of currently I believe $31 million. 

We have looked at both the legislation, your bill that was submitted and then the revised Senate bill that was put out and provided view statements. We are basically in agreement with the legislation. We did offer and we have worked with your staff to improve it. 

I would say I have now read through the current Senate provision and again from my personal perspective, since we have not 

provided a Department view statement, I am in agreement with 

what it says and where it goes. I would like to continue to work 

with your staff. 

I think there is one particular phraseology that limits our ability 

to, in fact, void. It deals with head of contracting activity and who 

has the authority. 

But, other than that, the Department submitted legislative proposals asking for 841, and 842 authorities I would also add is important to us to be able to make it work, to have the access to 

records. The Task Force 2010, in order to be able to do the analysis 

and the forensic work they do has to be able to get to the subcontractor records, and Section 842 gives us that authority. 
15 

Senator AYOTTE. Right. 

Mr. GINMAN. So not only do we need your bill but we also need 

Section 842 extended as well. 

Senator AYOTTE. So, let me just ask certainly Secretary Kennedy 

as well as Mr. Djahanbani, I apologize in pronouncing your last 

name. These provisions that Senator Blumenthal and I have introduced, essentially what they flow from is that understanding that 

money, taxpayer dollars are flowing to insurgents and our enemies 

and that the traditional contracting rules that may work well in 

Washington, that you need greater authorities to cutoff these funds 

sooner particularly in areas where there are obviously wartime situations but also other contingency situations around the world. 

So, Mr. Kennedy, have you, I would like to ask you what your 

position would be on extending these authorities to the State Department because it seems to me when I look at what the SIGAR 

has said, they have said it is important as well as the Commission 

on Wartime Contracting has identified this as an area where you 

also should have this authority to cutoff funds sooner. 

So, what is the State Department’s position on this? 

Mr. KENNEDY. I have not seen the exact nature of the legislation. 

I know my colleagues are meeting with your staff, Senator. But, I 

do not want one penny of U.S. Government money to go to any terrorist; and therefore, an independent grant of authority to the Secretary of State to be able to cutoff a contract of ours where it is 

determined that money is going to terrorists, I totally and completely support that. 

I cannot add, since a year ago because of parallel legislation coming, that came in one of our appropriations bills and in one of the 

titles on that, we have been running pilot vetting programs of this 

nature both in five countries and a separate program in Afghanistan. 

So, we are on this, but as you say, the ability to cutoff a contract 

immediately, if you gave me that authority I would gladly take it. 

Senator AYOTTE. And, would you also like to comment with regard to USAID what their position is? I do not remember the individual I met with but when I met with Major General Longo in Afghanistan in January there was also a representative of USAID 

there, and I apologize for not having his name right now but he 

said to me that this was just as much an issue for USAID, particularly of making sure that taxpayer dollars did not get in the wrong 

hands. 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. Thank you, Senator. USAID agrees that preventing funds from going to terrorists is, of course, the highest priority for us, and that is the reason we have such a robust vetting 

system in Afghanistan. 

The Administration is still reviewing your legislation and does 

not have a formal position on it yet. 

We believe that we do have strong authorities in place currently 

and we would like to examine that legislation more to be able to 

understand the differences between the authorities that we currently have. However, we are looking forward to working with your 

staff on the legislation, Senator Ayotte. 

Senator AYOTTE. Well, do you vet existing contractors and existing subcontractors, USAID? 
16 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. We do in Afghanistan. 

Senator AYOTTE. And do you compare it to known intelligence 

with insurgents? 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. There is a very rigorous process, Senator, that 

we go through. 

Senator AYOTTE. Well, if it is so rigorous and you think you have 

the authorities you have now, then why did the Commission on 

Wartime Contracting find that Afghan subcontractors on a USAID 

community development program in Kunar province were paying 

up to 20 percent of the total subcontract value to the insurgents 

for, quote, protection and that USAID Inspector General estimated 

that over $5 million of program funding was at risk for falling into 

the insurgents hands. 

In fact, one of the recommendations that comes from the Wartime Commission on Contracting is that there be greater authorities given not only that DOD has requested but this also apply 

across the State Department and USAID. 

So, I find it hard to believe that you have the authorities you 

need right now to address this problem. 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. Senator, we would like to know particularly 

what kind of impact this will have on what we are currently doing; 

and if it is and additional tools that we will be able to use and we 

do not have those authorities, we would gladly go along with it. 

But we would like to look at the differences between the authorities right now. 

Senator AYOTTE. I just want to correct. It was the SIGAR who 

said that not the Commission on Wartime Contracting but the 

principle is the same. 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. Yes. 

Senator AYOTTE. There seems to be a real urgency. I know my 

time is up but the fact that you come to this hearing and not be 

able to have reviewed this legislation which has already been incorporated and defense authorization has been pending for a while, we 

have been communicating with your staff about, this very much 

concerns me that you would not want the authority to cutoff funds 

to our enemies. 

So, I just feel like to not come to this hearing and have an answer for me that you have a viewpoint on this it really bothers me. 

So, I will be following up on this and I expect an answer. I will be 

submitting a question for the record and I would be shocked if you 

did not want this authority. 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. Senator, I would like to say again that we do 

have a wide variety of authorities at our disposal right now. We 

have been using them quite considerably for many years and we 

may want this in our toolbox. It is just that we are looking at it 

and we will work with your staff. 

Thank you very much. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Senator Coburn. 

Senator COBURN. Thank you for having this hearing. 

Mr. Ginman, explain to me how we got in the problems with 

Camp Leatherneck. Would you kind of walk me through how we 

built a base that the Marines did not want; and they, 3 years prior 

to its completion, had communicated that and yet we continue to 
17 

do it. I want to be taught please so I can understand what happened. 

Mr. GINMAN. So, Senator, as I said before, I do not know all of 

the details. I do know that an investigation has started at least as 

the SIGAR letter to the Defense Department reads. 

Certainly in 2010, a Marine general said I do not need this building. As Senator McCaskill said in her opening remarks, construction started in 2011. I believe it was completed in 2012. 

At least on the face of it, I have no ability to sit here and give 

you an answer on how that occurred or why it occurred. I do know 

that I need to let the investigation run its course and understand 

all of the details so that we can determine, as Senator Johnson 

said, who, in fact, made the decision and why did it occur. At least 

from my perspective at the moment, it defies logic. 

Senator COBURN. OK. One of my observations, having done this 

for a number of years now, is we get hung up on process which is 

important but we do not look at outcomes. 

Do people in the Pentagon or at USAID or at the State Department, is there someone in any of those three organizations when 

something is obviously going in the wrong direction that has the 

authority to say stop? Maybe not a permanent stop but stop. Let 

us stop. Where is that in the Pentagon? Where is that in the Department of State and where is that at USAID? 

Mr. GINMAN. I will at least take a shot from a DOD prospective. 

Senator COBURN. Thank you. 

Mr. GINMAN. I would like to think that from the chain of command that anybody who is in that particular chain of command 

and any decisions made if they think it is wrong has the ability to 

say stop, do not do that. 

I can tell you at least from a contracting perspective in the areas 

for which I am expressly responsible or the person who held my job 

before Mr. Assad and who is now the director of defense pricing, 

when we find it contracts that clearly are inappropriate, we do say 

stop. 

I believe Mr. Kendall in his role as Acquisition, Technology, and 

Logistics (AT&L), the Under Secretary of Defense for AT&L has 

said stop on a variety of occasions. 

Again, it is a leadership issue. Do we make mistakes, oh, certainly. 

Senator COBURN. I am not critical of mistakes being made. Everybody does that. 

Mr. GINMAN. Well, some of them you have to wonder. 

It is much like fraud. We have the recent newspaper articles 

where we just sentenced the individual to 20 years. At the end of 

the day, we attempt to have separation of powers so the person 

who has the requirement, the person who places the contract, the 

person who oversees the contract, and the person who pays it are, 

in fact, separate. 

From time to time in any number of areas that we wind up collapsing those and it increases the risk when we do so. When people 

do not follow an ethical compass, bad things are going to happen, 

and hopefully we catch it. 

I think the IG, the SIGAR, the DOD IG certainly have helped us 

find those; and when they do, I do think we take action. But, from 
18 

my standpoint, sir, it is a question of leadership and the people 

that are in those positions when they find the things, if they had 

the power to say stop or at least take a pause and say that I believe that we, in fact, do that. 

Senator COBURN. Any comments from you? 

Mr. KENNEDY. If I could, Senator, we also have multiple points 

in the State Department. If you look at our command structure 

overseas, an ambassador, a deputy chief of mission, the management officer which is the senior operating officer, if any of them see 

something that is going wrong, they certainly have the authority 

to pause the situation and then refer it and refer it to Washington 

and in Washington there is the executive director, the Chief Administrative Officer, the Bureau Deputy Assistant and Assistant 

Secretary and me. 

We get all the time material that comes in from an ambassador 

saying we were going on a direction, the situation has changed politically, economically, structurally, we need to not do something 

that is proposed. And, they send in a justification and unless there 

is some overarching argument that they are not aware of, we stop 

them. We make changes in our program plans all the time when 

the circumstances that hopefully said that this is the right decision 

in the first place then we make changes, sir. 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. Sir, I am very passionate about this. When I 

was in Pakistan the 2-years that I was posted there, the Inspector 

General came to me and they mentioned they had a situation. All 

I did was I looked at the information and there was no doubt in 

my mind that the project had to be ended and I ended it right 

there. I went to the mission director. I told him the reasoning behind it and it was terminated. 

That is how serious we take this situation, sir. 

Senator COBURN. Let me followup. We have built a couple hospitals in Afghanistan through USAID and the whole goal is so that 

they will be able to sustain them. But, the cost to run these hospitals is about four or five times what the cost is to run what they 

are replacing. 

How does that fit with the model of sustainment when they are 

not going to have the funds to continue to run those hospitals? 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. Dr. Coburn, regarding these two hospitals, I 

have been briefed on them and my understanding is that the Ministry of Health has, in writing, have told us that they are going to 

fund these two hospitals for them to be sustainable. That is the information that we have. 

Senator COBURN. All right. So, let us assume that is right. The 

question I would have in terms of health care for Afghans is, not 

making the same mistakes we make in our country. And so, if we 

add sophistication, one of the things that Dr. Shah has been so 

great at is downgrading requirements so that we meet needs but 

we do not necessarily meet them the same way we meet them here, 

whether it is resuscitating babies or whatever it is. 

So, we have designed infrastructure for the Afghans at a level 

that kind of goes against what he talked about in terms of philosophy there. So, we are building two new institutions there that 

from somewhere in the Afghan government they are going to be 

stealing the money from somewhere else to maintain a hospital at 
19 

our level of expertise rather than at the level of expertise that they 

need. 

How did we get so crosswise with what Dr. Shah wants to do in 

terms of meeting needs but not doing it under the level of sophistication that we do? 

[Pause.] 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. Dr. Coburn—— 

Senator COBURN. I mean, that is the reason why these are going 

to cost that much. 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. Sure. Again, our project design process that we 

go through is rigorous and we make sure that all of the criterias 

necessary in the project designs are incorporated from sustainability to cost effectiveness, and all of our projects go through that 

process. 

So, I will be glad to look into this matter and get you more information for the record. But, I would stand by the project design 

process we go through which is very robust and incorporates all the 

necessaries like sustainability and risk assessments and all that is 

being done throughout that process. 

Senator COBURN. I know I am over time and I apologize, but 

there is a problem in terms of sustaining these two hospitals, is 

there not? There is going to be a problem. Even though they may 

have committed to pay for it for the first year or two, the fact is 

there is going to be a problem. 

So, if we have a rigorous standard in terms of sustainability and 

yet there is a problem with sustainability, either there is not a 

problem with sustainability or there is not a rigorous standard, and 

that is my point because I think one of the great things Dr. Shah 

brings to the USAID is practical common sense on trying to accomplish outcomes rather than get tied up in the mess of requirements, 

let us treat people’s illness and prevent disease rather than transfer our cost structure to them. 

So, I yield back. 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. Dr. Coburn, in fact, just to followup on what 

you mention about Dr. Shah, what we implemented just last week 

is an accountability policy whereby all assistant administrators 

have to review all requirements that go above $25 million to make 

sure that the seven qualifying factors which sustainability is one 

major part of it is included in those requirements. 

And, Dr. Shah himself will be reviewing anything above the $75 

million. As you said, this is very important to us. 

Thank you, sir. 

Senator MCCASKILL. I am going to try to go through hopefully in 

a fairly quick fashion, and I will take another round if I need to 

on various sections of the war contracting reforms that have enacted into law and asked some questions about them. 

I will start with Section 844. All of you are using the SPOT database, and I try to always not speak in acronyms but bear with me 

when I talk about that acronym. We have done hearings on SPOT 

and the other, I forget the acronym, it is five letters and ends with 

next-generation. What is it? 

Mr. GINMAN. Federal Procurement Data System Next Generation 

(FPDSN). 
20 

Senator MCCASKILL. There you go. I knew you could speak the 

language. It is required of you at the Pentagon. 

When we have looked at this, the SPOT has really been underutilized and very inaccurate. So, let me ask all of you some very 

quick questions. 

Do you believe you have the capability now to collect and report 

on personnel and contracts on any given date? Mr. Ginman. 

Mr. GINMAN. Yes. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Mr. Kennedy. 

Mr. KENNEDY. Yes. 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. Yes. 

Senator MCCASKILL. What is the total number of contracts you 

have entered into. Mr. Ginman. 

Mr. GINMAN. So, from October 12 through May 13, we have done 

207.1 thousand actions in Afghanistan and Iraq to a total of $7 billion. It was 1,000,293 transactions in fiscal year 2012 to a total of 

18.2 billion. 

Senator MCCASKILL. I would like to have that document. It looks 

like you got it laminated for me. Thank you. 

Mr. GINMAN. I am happy to share it with you. 

Senator MCCASKILL. So, you can also give me the value of those 

contracts. Can you give me the total number of contractor personnel you have right now? 

Mr. GINMAN. I think the actual personnel I have was through 

April. 

Senator MCCASKILL. What is that number right now? 

Mr. GINMAN. Today in Afghanistan, this is through April, 

107,796. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Do you have total number of security personnel? 

Mr. GINMAN. 17,993. 

Senator MCCASKILL. How about contractor casualties? 

Mr. GINMAN. I do not have that on this list. We have, in fact, 

modified spots so that it can count for casualties, both wounded 

and killed. That particular part of the database is probably the 

area that we still need the most, the most work to get its quality 

and its state of capability up. 

Senator MCCASKILL. I do not think anybody realizes that your 

testimony just now in my world, balloons should have dropped from 

the ceiling, because when I started in this, no one knew any of 

that. So, that is a really good sign. 

Now, what we do with that becomes even more important. Once 

we get reliable data, then all the excuses about failure to oversee 

kind of become even more lame. 

Secretary Kennedy, do you have the same kind of data available 

to you? 

Mr. KENNEDY. I brought our fiscal year 2011 and fiscal year 2012 

totals with me, Senator. 

Senator MCCASKILL. OK. 

Mr. KENNEDY. I can easily gin up an fiscal year 2013 to date and 

send you but I did not bring a snapshot today. We can hit the machine and make it talk to us but I can give you fiscal year 2011 

and fiscal year 2012—— 
21 

1 Information from Mr. Kennedy appears in the Appendix on page 73. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Broken out by security personnel versus 

contractors? 

Mr. KENNEDY. For example, in fiscal year 2012, the total number 

of contractor personnel for the Department of State in Afghanistan 

was 1,878, and 809 were performing security functions. I also have 

those for Iraq.1

Senator MCCASKILL. And AID? 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. Madam Chairman, the Global Acquisition Assistance System, this is how we award all of our requirements in 

the agency. Eighty percent of all the funding goes through this 

mechanism and it has direct interface with FPDSNG and the Federal Aid Data System (FADS). The FADS collect all the assistance 

data. 

Madam Chairman, we will be glad to provide you all those numbers including the number of personnel, for the record. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Section 846. This is the requirement you do 

risk assessments and risk mitigation for contractor support including those functions closely associated with inherently governmental 

functions. 

Even though it is not required at this time, have you perform 

risk assessments for Afghanistan? Mr. Ginman. 

Mr. GINMAN. So, at least as you asked that question, I do not 

think we can tell you we have done a risk assessment. We do routine risk assessments with the plans on going forward when people 

are looking at do I do this through contract, do I do it with civil 

servants, or do I with military. As those plans are being put together in theater, yes, they review for risk. 

Senator MCCASKILL. And, are you all in the process of preparing 

for Section 846 where you will have that risk assessment? 

Mr. GINMAN. The two sections of 846, at least as I understand 

them, the first piece is as we are doing planning to consider risk 

and we do that today—I cannot do this off the top of my head. 

It is covered in, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Manual 

(CJCSM) 4301 is an instruction that talks to how we do planning 

and put in those plans. In it, risk assessment is covered. 

The second half is when we go in—so, that is one just in the 

plan. The other is when we go into a agency operation within the 

60 days to have done a risk assessment, and we will do that as 

well. 

Senator MCCASKILL. And this is really a kissing cousin to Senator Ayotte’s legislation and language that we have tried to adopt 

in the NDAA this year moving forward based off your legislation 

because if you do the right risk assessment, you do not end up having to pay off the bad guys because you make a determination that 

we are going to be, in fact, enhancing our enemy if we tried to do 

this particular project in this security environment. 

I mean time after time if you look at the failures, it has been because they have, and by the way the can-do attitude of the military 

and AID and the State Department is something that we are all 

proud of as Americans. There is nothing that we, cannot do. 

On the other hand if we think we can build a highway through 

the middle of the territory where everything is controlled by the 
22 

bad guys and we think we are going to do that without getting contractors shot, without paying off the Taliban, that is a dumb mistake, and we have done that with a highway in Afghanistan. 

So let me ask you, Secretary Kennedy. What about the risk assessment from your perspective? I think that highway, I cannot remember if that is Defense or State. Which one is it? It is State. 

Mr. KENNEDY. I will have to go back and check. 

Senator MCCASKILL. AID. Not you; it is him. [Laughter.] 

Mr. KENNEDY. All right. I miss a lot of things. I have not missed 

a highway recently. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Neither has anyone else by the way. 

Mr. KENNEDY. Three points, ma’am. Vetting. We have been engaged in a pilot program both in Afghanistan and in five other 

countries in an extensive vetting operation so we are piloting that 

right now. It has been in place about a year now. We have an office 

that does vetting in six countries including Afghanistan. 

We have put into place a programmatic request for contracting 

services, a template that people must do which I think goes to your 

point, coupled with when the NDAA passed, one of the working 

groups we did is set up a contracting risk assessment organizational briefing structure, and we are working through that right 

now. 

So that should we be faced with the State Department having to 

go into a contingency operation in Xanadu or Shangri-La, we would 

use a structure like this. My plan is to set up a small unit responsible for this. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Mr. Djahanbani. 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. In 2010, we basically had the A–3 initiative 

which was implemented in Afghanistan. It is broken down into 

three different areas. 

In terms of award mechanisms, we are utilizing awards that provided the most visibility on project costs. For example, cost reimbursable contracts and we are limiting the subcontracting to two 

levels only. 

We are conducting the partner vetting. We have a very robust 

partner vetting system in Afghanistan. In addition to that, regarding the financial controls which are very important, we aim to 

audit 100 percent of all locally incurred costs as extra measures to 

identify fraud, waste, and abuse. 

Senator MCCASKILL. I do not mean to cut you off because I have 

gone over my time and I want to give my colleagues a second round 

and we are going to have to start votes here in 20 or 25 minutes. 

Here is what I would like for all of you. 

I do not quarrel that you all are beginning to put into place the 

systems that would try to embrace what we are trying to get at in 

the war contracting reforms. I get it that we are doing councils and 

we are doing working groups and we are doing regs and we are 

doing, all of that and, I know it is important but sometimes it feels 

blah blah blah blah blah. 

And so, what I would like to hear from all of you is I need you 

to try to find a project you have stopped because of risk assessment. I need you to bring to me someplace where somebody was 

going to build something or do something, not because of sequestration, not because we cut your money, but because based on a risk 
23 

1 Information from Mr. Ginman appears in the Appendix on page 74. 

assessment you decide, we are going to have to pay off the bad 

guys to do this or there is no way they can sustain this or this is 

a bad idea because, a water park in Iraq, which is now crumbling 

or the power grid in an area that is going to get blown up, I need 

some success stories here. 

I need you to tell me some places you have done that, and I will 

promise you this. If you can bring me some success stories where 

you have cutoff projects because you appropriately evaluated both 

risk and sustainability, I will make you the stars of my website for 

as long as you want to be up there. I will herald you. I will actually 

send balloon bouquets. They will not drop from the ceiling but that 

is what we are looking for here. 

We are looking for a sense that all of this work is resulting in 

a change of culture; and if we do not get that change of culture, 

I mean, I have to tell you guys you are going to be here every 6 

months until Missourians kick me out of this place or I decide I 

have had enough, and at this point I am not sure which is going 

to come first. 

So, I will now turn it over to Senator Johnson. 

Senator JOHNSON. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I would like to 

go back to security contracting because I have to admit particularly 

in war zones it has always really puzzled me why we would not use 

the finest military force in the world in those individuals. 

So, both for Mr. Djahanbani and Secretary Kennedy, do you have 

a metric in terms of what the cost is for using U.S. military personnel versus contracting those security forces. I mean cost per 

person, is there some metric? 

Mr. GINMAN. I do not have that off the top of my head to be able 

to say a cost per metric. The combatant commander makes his decisions on when do I want, do I want somebody, do I want to use 

a soldier, sailor, airman, or marine standing in a post at gate that 

is interior or do I want to do that with a contractor. But the actual 

number is associated with that I do not know. 

Senator JOHNSON. But would we not really take a look at the 

cost of that though? I mean, from the Defense Department standpoint in terms of us having to deal with all these deficits and the 

cost of these things, would we not make the decision based on, this 

is costing us two or three times to contract that service versus 

using the finest among us, the U.S. military personnel? We do not 

even look at that? 

Mr. GINMAN. Sir, I guess I do not honestly know the answer to 

the question. I will have to get it for the record.1

Senator JOHNSON. Secretary Kennedy, how does the State Department evaluate that? 

Mr. KENNEDY. Well, first of all, Senator, I did run some numbers. 

These are, I will admit I am not going—— 

Senator JOHNSON. That is fine. I like ballparks. 

Mr. KENNEDY. They are ballparks. We are currently at a number 

of the high threat posts that the State Department has designated 

a principal concern, we are spending about $87 million on contracted security, and that includes American and local staff. 
24 

If we replaced that $87 million entirely with contractors, it would be $4.8 billion, if we went from a mix of Americans and contractors, 4.8 billion. 

If we used the military—and I have not had a chance, this is data that is publicly available—the cost is either $3 billion or $9 

billion; and the distinction is the military has a planning structure, 

and I defer to my colleagues, that for every soldier who is engaged 

there is also two other soldiers who are coming off of mission and 

going into retraining or in prep to take the mission. So that in effect you have three divisions, one just come out of Iraq, one in Iraq, 

and one getting ready. So, you can see the difference between $86 million and $3 billion 

for the military is a serious fiscal consideration. 

Senator JOHNSON. I have to admit this does not make much 

sense to me, and then both Dr. Coburn and I have an accounting 

background. So we really, I would suggest we really need a pretty 

detailed evaluation studying in terms of the cost of contracting 

versus using military personnel. 

Mr. KENNEDY. Senator, could I add just one thing? There is a 

General Accountability report on this matter which I did not bring 

with me. 

Senator JOHNSON. OK. 

Mr. KENNEDY. But I will be glad to get to you—— 

Senator JOHNSON. I would appreciate that. 

Mr. KENNEDY [continuing]. And the committee staff the citation 

for the General Accountability report. 

Senator JOHNSON. Secretary Kennedy, have you seen this January 2013 report from the Project on Government Oversight on 

Kabul embassy security? 

Mr. KENNEDY. Sir, I have. 

Senator JOHNSON. Were you disturbed by the report, as disturbed as I was? 

Mr. KENNEDY. I am disturbed by anything that I read and then 

I go and check the facts, and I am much less disturbed than I was 

because the material that they reported I find to be sensationalized, if I might use that word, and I would be glad now or at your 

convenience or with your staff to go through, in effect paragraph 

by paragraph—— 

Senator JOHNSON. Well, we do not have time here. I would appreciate your coming on over to my office and I would like to walk 

through because I ran operations continuing shift and I am very 

sensitive to how you can work individuals so they are effective. 

And, in this report they are talking about the contractor, their 

guards working 72 hours per week when the State Department 

guidelines would be 36 to 42 hours per week. Right there that concerns me if that is true. Would you dispute that? 

Mr. KENNEDY. I absolutely dispute that. 

Senator JOHNSON. OK. 

Mr. KENNEDY. And if I could add one just contextual matter with 

your permission, Senator. 

Senator JOHNSON. Sure. 

Mr. KENNEDY. Our embassy in Kabul, as you correctly state, is 

under very high threat. There have been to direct attacks on our 

embassy compound in Kabul during the tenure of this current con-
25 

tractor. Both of those attacks were rebuffed and the contractor, 

along with the diplomatic security colleagues there performed superbly. 

Senator JOHNSON. OK. 

Mr. KENNEDY. And so part of it is the proof is in the pudding. 

We were attacked and rewarded off those attacked with no injuries 

to U.S. Government personnel on our compound. 

Senator JOHNSON. OK. Well, again I would appreciate sitting 

down talking with you because this is very disturbing, particularly 

in light of Benghazi. 

By the way, I recognize you were not ready to talk about those 

cables but just to correct the record all three of those cables do 

mention specifically Benghazi. They are not just about Tripoli. It 

is about the temporary duty diplomatic security corps. 

Mr. KENNEDY. I will be glad to come up and again, Senator, go 

over those with you or your staff because the cables have both 

Tripoli and Benghazi in them. Tripoli asked for certain things. 

Benghazi asked for certain things, and we met those requirements. 

Senator JOHNSON. Who did make the decision to ramp down security in Benghazi, though? Where was that decision made? 

Mr. KENNEDY. There was no decision, Senator, to ramp down security in Benghazi. 

Senator JOHNSON. Certainly not to keep the security support 

team (SST) that was withdrawn. 

Mr. KENNEDY. That was a Tripoli-based outfit that was never assigned to Benghazi. Nor was it ever proposed to the State Department or any one else that that unit be shifted from Tripoli to 

Benghazi. 

Senator JOHNSON. Who made the decision never to fully ramp up 

the five requested temporary duty diplomatic security personnel? 

Mr. KENNEDY. There was a request for five in Benghazi. The request from the Department was give us your needs assessment. 

What would those five individuals do? 

The needs assessment came back. We would like three diplomatic 

security special agents. We want one driver, and we want one 

which is we called Cryptoguard. We sent, for the Cryptoguard we 

sent out an information technology (IT) professional and we got 

drivers. 

So, what they wanted was three security officers plus two others, 

and we had three security officers there to meet their request, Senator. 

Senator JOHNSON. Just one final question because I have heard 

this rumored. Is it true that Secretary Clintons certainly had a goal 

of setting up a permanent presence in Benghazi, and that was one 

of the things she talked to Ambassador Stevens about before giving 

him the job? Did you ever talk to her about that? 

Mr. KENNEDY. I had one or more conversations with the secretary and there was no decision, no decision had been made. I saw 

that same report that you did, Senator. 

Senator JOHNSON. Maybe not a decision but was there a desire 

to do so? 

Mr. KENNEDY. No decision had been made but the point is when 

Chris Stephens was there, the fiscal year was ending in 19 days. 

There is no way in the bureaucracy both of the State Department 
26 

and our requirements for Congressional notification when you establish a permanent post or reprogram money, there was no way 

that was going to be done in 19 days. 

Senator JOHNSON. But again, no decision was made but did you 

ever talk to Secretary Clinton about setting up a permanent presence in Benghazi? 

Mr. KENNEDY. That was obviously an option but no decision had 

been made. 

Senator JOHNSON. OK. But you did discuss that with Secretary 

Clinton? 

Mr. KENNEDY. I had one discussion about this is whether to continue the temporary operation there and we continued the temporary operation. That was the decision made at that time. 

Senator JOHNSON. OK. Thank you, Mr. Secretary. 

Mr. KENNEDY. Certainly. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Senator Ayotte. 

Senator AYOTTE. Thank you, Madam Chairman. I really appreciate your passion for these issues of contracting in Afghanistan 

and elsewhere, and I would be happy to post things on my website 

as well praising them for stopping projects. 

I wanted to followup, first of all, particularly with Secretary Kennedy and Mr. Djahanbani. Can you pronounce it for me? I apologize. I want to make sure I get it right. 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. Mr. Djahanbani. Silent in ‘‘D’’. 

Senator AYOTTE. Thank you, Mr. Djahanbani. 

General Dunford when he testified before the Senate Armed 

Services Committee in April has said that he believes it is critical 

that the State Department and USAID have the same authorities 

to cancel contracts as the Department of Defense, and he also said 

that expanding that authority to include non-DOD organizations 

makes a lot of sense. 

So, word from the ground and I am hoping that you will look at 

that very carefully. Also, I know Mr. Ginman has a lot of opinions 

and experience with this issue. So, I hope that we can have this 

consistency across agencies when we are all working together, and 

it is obviously the three agencies are working together on some of 

these projects in Afghanistan that you have already been questioned about. 

Mr. KENNEDY. Senator, as I said, I like the Secretary of State to 

have all the same authorities as the Secretary of Defense. 

Senator AYOTTE. Great. Thank you very much; and by the way, 

as Mr. Ginman talked about, this authority in its initial inception 

as allowed the Department to stop contracting with certain contractors and subcontractors. 

So, while I think we can do a lot more, the initial run of it has 

been effective and certainly there is more we can do if we give you 

greater authority. 

I wanted to followup, Secretary Kennedy, on some of Senator 

Johnson’s questions. Here is what is bothering me about the attack 

on our consulate and the prior cable. 

So, I also serve on the Senate Armed Services Committee; and 

in February of this past year, General Dempsey as well as Secretary Panetta testified about the attack on the consulate in 

Benghazi before that committee; and both of them testified that 
27 

they were aware of the prior cables, particularly the cable of August 16 coming from Ambassador Stevens which described the concerns about the adequacy of the security at the consulate in 

Benghazi. I believe you have testified that you were familiar with 

that cable, is that right? 

Mr. KENNEDY. That is correct. 

Senator AYOTTE. They say they receive that information from a 

report from General Ham that went up to the Chairman of the 

Joint Chiefs of Staff (CJCS) and then also went to the Secretary 

of Defense as well; and as a result of that, in fact, General Ham 

approached, according to the testimony before the Armed Services 

Committee, actually approached the State Department asking 

whether the site security team from Tripoli should be extended in 

Benghazi; and according to the testimony before the Armed Services Committee of General Dempsey, he was told no. 

Are you familiar with that testimony? 

Mr. KENNEDY. My recollection was, and I just read it I believe, 

I thought it was that General Ham approached Ambassador Stevens about whether the SST should be extended in Tripoli. That is 

my recollection but I would need to refresh myself by looking at the 

papers before—— 

Senator AYOTTE. They had called the embassy. It is not clear 

who they spoke to according to the testimony, and they were told 

no. I guess the question according to the testimony before the 

Armed Services Committee, it is not clear who said no for the extension of the site security team. Do you know that? 

Mr. KENNEDY. What I am aware of, Senator, is that there were 

16 people on SST. Eight security people, two medical, two communications, two helicopter landing zone people, two EOD, that is 

eight; and then eight security. 

That latter eight had worked themselves out of a job because the 

State Department had replaced them. The eight who were security 

had been replaced by a combination of State Department personnel 

and, if I may make clear, six of those eight stayed on in Tripoli 

which is not report—— 

Senator AYOTTE. Right. But my question just so I am clear, I just 

want to understand. 

Mr. KENNEDY. Yes. 

Senator AYOTTE. General Ham knew about this. Reported it up 

his chain of command. 

Mr. KENNEDY. Right. 

Senator AYOTTE. Do you know, he said that according to 

Dempsey, Ham called the embassy and said, because of obviously 

the cable receipt, and said do you want to expand the site security 

team, were you aware of that and who made the decision there? 

Mr. KENNEDY. No, I was not aware the General Ham had contacted the embassy. I do not know who—— 

Senator AYOTTE. Well, I will give you a copy of that testimony 

because I will have a followup question, and here is my question 

to you. 

What troubled me was that if General Ham, the commander of 

AFRICOM reported up his chain of command a cable from the 

State Department about security, involving security and other 

issues in Benghazi, and that went to the Chairman of the Joint 
28 

Chiefs of Staff, went to the Secretary of Defense, how is it that you, 

with your responsibilities, given that this was a State Department, 

obviously our Ambassador and the personnel that were State Department personnel here would not have reported that up your 

chain of command? 

Mr. KENNEDY. Because we had replaced those individuals with 

State Department personnel. Six of them had remained. 

Senator AYOTTE. It was important enough for the AFRICOM general on the ground who it was not his area of responsibility, it was 

not a DOD facility, that they thought a Secretary of State, a State 

cable should be reported up to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of 

Staff, reported up to the Secretary of Defense, and even though 

State Department personnel were involved, you did not report it to 

the Secretary of State? 

Mr. KENNEDY. Because we had replaced those individuals 

with—— 

Senator AYOTTE. But that cable said that security was not adequate there from your Ambassador. You did not think that was important enough to report to the Secretary of State? 

Mr. KENNEDY. Because we were repairing or fixing the shortfalls 

that were outlined. I—— 

Senator AYOTTE. I just am shocked that the general—— 

Mr. KENNEDY. Let me give you—— 

Senator AYOTTE [continuing]. In AFRICOM thought it was important enough to report it up his chain of command even though 

it did not involve his personnel directly and you did not. 

Mr. KENNEDY. But again, Senator, two things. One, we are talking about Tripoli, not Benghazi. The tragedy took place in 

Benghazi. The SST was a Tripoli-based unit. So, they are two separate things. 

Senator AYOTTE. OK. My time is up, but the August cable clearly 

involved in Benghazi not Tripoli. 

Mr. KENNEDY. No question. But there was no offer, there was no 

offer or request from the post to keep the SST and shift them to 

Benghazi. 

Senator AYOTTE. But we are talking about reporting up on a 

cable on the security of State Department personnel so that is my 

issue with it, but my time is up and I appreciate your being here. 

Senator MCCASKILL. I am going to try to get back to contracting. 

Let us go to Section 853, past performance. I know that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has set a 100 percent reporting all for 2015. As you all know, this is a section that requires 

the FAR Council, chaired by the Administrator of Federal Procurements Policy, to have a strategy on past performance indicators 

which has really been a problem in this area. 

What is the current level of past performance reporting for each 

of you? Let us start with AID. What is your current level of past 

performing, at what percentage do you that you are reaching right 

now and what is your goal for this year and next year? 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. Madam Chairman, this is a No. 1 priority for 

myself. Back in 2010, the percentage was 7 percent. Since 2011, we 

put a very aggressive strategy in place which has doubled the number to close to 30 percent. We are about 27 percent right now. As 
29 

the end of the fiscal year comes to a close, a lot of those reports 

will be coming in. 

So, that percentage will go up and we do have, we have set aside 

November for the past performance month and we will have another standdown day to make sure we achieve the 65 percent well 

on our way to the 100 percent in calendar year 2015. 

Senator MCCASKILL. I appreciate the effort you are making with 

your standdown days and it is going to take some of that. 

Mr. Ginman and Mr. Kennedy, are either one of you scheduling 

the same kind of standdown days or using any other techniques to 

get us up to snuff on past performance reporting? 

Mr. KENNEDY. We are not using standdown days. We are using 

directed orders to the people to get this in. We have also started 

out, and I will fully admit from a pathetic base, we have doubled 

that. 

The last snapshot we took just is about 17 percent; but just as 

my colleague from AID said, the data flows it at the end of the fiscal year as you are closing out contracts. 

We believe that we will be 45 or 50 percent at the end of this 

fiscal year. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Well, I hope that all of you can get to 50 

percent and you guys have better news, right? Mr. Ginman. 

Mr. GINMAN. We are closer to 80 percent. 

Senator MCCASKILL. I know. You are doing really well. 

Mr. GINMAN. Well, to get 100, that is still a challenge. 

Senator MCCASKILL. It is a challenge. 

Mr. GINMAN. I issue a quarterly letter to all of the services and 

agencies that reported. We discussed it. Mr. Kendall hosts about a 

once a month business SIG and we report progress there as well. 

Each of the Service Acquisition Executives, Mr. Stackley, now 

Mr. LaPlante, and Ms. Shyu, all understand where they are at and 

to push it. I am embarrassed to say that I discovered yesterday my 

own office is delinquent on four Contractor Performance Assessment Reporting System (CPARS). 

Senator MCCASKILL. That is embarrassing. 

Mr. GINMAN. Well—— 

Senator MCCASKILL. Good for you for admitting it. Points for 

that. 

Let us go to noncompliance, Section 862. Mr. Ginman, have you 

completed your report under 862 on implementing uniform contract 

writing systems which was due earlier this month. 

Mr. GINMAN. The report is written. I believe it was released out 

of the building. I am just not certain. 

Senator MCCASKILL. OK. I want to make sure we get that for the 

record for this hearing. 

Let me ask about 802, pass-through contracts. This is obviously 

a big problem. We all know it is a big problem. And, what basically 

we are trying to do is we are trying to make sure that we do not 

have somebody who is passing through more than 70 percent of the 

work they have contracted to do. There is a pending FAR rule that 

the agency will put forth. 

Do any of you have anything you want to put in the record about 

the pending rule and whether or not there are problems with it and 
30 

anything that you want to address on pass-through contracts 

today? 

Mr. DJAHANBANI. Madam Chairman, if I may, I would like to just 

mention that I have gone ahead and issued a new policy directive 

to all of our contracting officers implementing this right now. Once 

the rule is effective, we will rescind that and, of course, follow the 

FAR rule. 

Senator MCCASKILL. OK. What about Section 843. This requires 

the Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) to establish a chain of authority for policy planning, execution of contract support. Part of this 

is that when I began realizing how bad this was, there was no way 

you could find somebody who was responsible, I mean, it was so 

disparate and there were so many tentacles of all of this based on, 

and I know we have CSTC-A now and other things. 

Do you feel like that you are getting at the operational contract 

support, do you think you are getting there? 

Mr. GINMAN. Yes, ma’am. So, if I could just for your last question, I am told it is still in coordination. So, the report has not left 

the building. 

Senator MCCASKILL. OK. Well, we have 30 days so that means 

somebody needs to just hurry up and review it and get it done and 

get it out. 

Mr. GINMAN. Yes. 

I refer to this, and I have heard you in earlier hearings, I refer 

to this as the who is in charge question. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Exactly. 

Mr. GINMAN. I believe, one, DOD Directive 3020.49, this is a 

mouthful, entitled, ‘‘Orchestrating, Synchronizing and Integrating 

Program Management of Contingency Acquisition Planning and 

Operational Execution’’ lays out clearly who is in charge and what 

each of the individual roles are and what it is that they do. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Who is in charge at the top? Who is the person at the top? 

Mr. GINMAN. So, at the end of the day within the Department, 

the one person is Secretary Hagel. 

Senator MCCASKILL. I know he is at the top. 

Mr. GINMAN. I understand. But you have the Under Secretary of 

Personnel and Readiness who has very distinct responsibilities 

when it comes to managing the force of which contractors are a 

piece. The Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, 

and Logistics, very clear responsibilities. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Kendall. 

Mr. GINMAN. Mr. Kendall. 

When it comes expressly to those issues associated with acquisition and contracting and the management of contractors on the 

battlefield, we have the Comptroller who has very clear responsibilities associated with the money and funding and what are we doing 

with it. The Under Secretary of Defense for Policy has very clear 

responsibilities, again, with how we do this. 

So, to the question with risk assessments analysis, we are all engaged in the that. The joint staff plays a significant role in how we 

do all of this. 
31 

Senator MCCASKILL. Well, this investigation is going to be really 

interesting on this building in Leatherneck because what is going 

to do is maybe it is going to answer that question. 

Mr. GINMAN. It may in fact. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Because it does not appear that, I mean, I 

get what you are saying. I know you cannot just say, OK, this is 

the contracting puba over here; and if anything goes wrong, it is 

his head, or her head. 

But what I do not want to get to is just a new bunch of jargon 

replacing the old jargon that was very not much not clear so—— 

Mr. GINMAN. So, if I could, I mentioned the action plans, the 

OCS Functional Capability Integration Board (FCIB) that was put 

together that is cochaired by Mr. Motsek, who is the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Program Support, Office of the Assistant 

Secretary of Defense Logistics and Material Readiness (L&MR) and 

by Brigadier General Crenshaw, who is the Vice Deputy for Logistics Joint Staff, J–4. 

The 10 capability areas that are addressed, the first one and 

from my standpoint the most important one, is not the policy; it is 

the doctrine and getting it so that the people, everybody understands what it is. When you go back to the Gansler Commission 

in 2007, it is the professional training. It is in the execution. It is 

the exercises. 

Senator MCCASKILL. And I know you have a joint exercise scheduled for? 

Mr. GINMAN. January. 

Senator MCCASKILL. January, and I know you have gone from 48 

people being trained for years ago to over 400 trained now. I mean, 

I am aware that we have really, and the corps now, I mean, when 

I started this, the low man on the totem pole was handed a clipboard and said it does not really matter, this is your job. I know 

we have done a lot of good work on this. 

Mr. GINMAN. Yes. So, the magnitude and the size and the number of personnel, both civilian and military, from second lieutenants and first lieutenants to senior enlisted, all the way up through 

general officers, getting that inculcated in, I mean, we were encouraged when both General Petraesus and General Allen signed letters out that say contracting is the commander’s business. 

I mean, for 100,000 people on the battlefield and who is managing them and overseeing where this goes, it is getting so that it 

is understood is by far and away the largest gap that we have. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Right. 

Mr. GINMAN. It is one that we are actively working, but it is not 

one that we are going to solve today or tomorrow. I mean, I think, 

as you say, we have made significant strides. Ma’am, we have a 

long ways to go. 

Senator MCCASKILL. Yes, you do and I will be here making sure 

that we get it done and I am sure Senator Johnson joins me in 

that. 

I am way over time. I did not get a chance to get to, and we are 

going to have to go to a vote here, and certainly we can hold the 

panel for as long as you like it if you want to do more questions. 

I have some specific questions for you on your remote monitoring 

project. I mean, this is all kinds of bells and whistles going off. The 
32 

notion that we are hiring contractors to oversee the contractors is 

just always a really dicey proposition, and I know it is a dangerous 

area. 

But, I have some specific questions about the fact that MSI 

Worldwide is hiring people on this when the request for proposal 

(RFP) has not even been completed. That seems weird to me, and 

I need to have some specific answers to that. 

So, if the RFP is not out and a contractor is already hiring people 

under it, that means something is rotten. Senator Johnson. 

Senator JOHNSON. I just have one quick question, maybe not 

quick but it is just one. We are looking at the Afghan special mission wing, some reports on that. My concern is this is going to be 

the aircraft version of the $34 million building. We already spent $122 million. I guess projected spending is about $772 million. It is looking like an aircraft that Afghans are 

not going to be able to operate effectively. Contracts being let out 

to a Russian contractor who has been actually barred from providing that but they were able to continue the contract because it 

was 2012 spending versus 2013. 

Mr. Ginman, can you please address the Afghan special mission 

wing? 

Mr. GINMAN. Well, it is outside of my area, but I believe, that 

the Deputy Secretary sent over a letter that acknowledged the MI– 

17s were being bought with fiscal year 2012 funds but also went 

on to say if they would be bought with fiscal year 2013 funds, Deputy Secretary Carter would have determined that a waiver of Section 1277 of the NDAA for fiscal year 2013 would be in the national 

security interest of the United States. I think that is what the Deputy Secretary said in his letter that came over identifying it. 

Senator JOHNSON. Is this being actively reviewed? Is this project 

being actively reviewed and is there any chance of stopping it? And 

who is actively reviewing it, under whose command is this? 

Mr. GINMAN. Well, so the MI–17, the requirement for MI–17s 

comes through the Nato Training Mission Afghanistan/Combined 

Security Transition Command Afghanistan from the theater. It has 

been thoroughly reviewed inside the Department. The decision 

clearly was made and went up to the Deputy Secretary and I think 

his letter articulates this is exactly what I found and what I did. 

I mean, significant time and effort was put into the decision associated with MI–17s. 

Senator JOHNSON. So, has the decision already been made or 

does it continue to be reviewed? 

Mr. GINMAN. Well, I mean, I think we—— 

Senator JOHNSON. Are we going to spend $772 million? 

Mr. GINMAN. So I mean they are continuing to review. The Department continues to spend significant time ensuring that we will 

have an adequate throughput of pilots to be able to fly the MI–17s, 

that we have the skill set. I mean, it gets reviewed regularly at the 

warfighter SIG, that is led by the Deputy Secretary. 

Senator JOHNSON. OK. Thank you. That is all I have, Madam 

Chairman. 

Senator MCCASKILL. I thank all of you for being here. I appreciate it very much. I know everyone is working hard on this and 

that there is a difference in attitude about it. I think everyone now 
33 

recognizes that contracting has to be a core competency for all of 

you because of the reliance we have on them. 

We will look forward to some of the specific answers we have 

asked for. I will look forward to hearing those projects that have 

been stopped based on sustainability and risk, and congratulating 

you on my website once I get those great stories of success. 

Thank you, and this hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 11:13 a.m., the Subcommittee was adjourned.] 

(35) 

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Æ