Claire McCaskill

To give them the benefit of the doubt.

We did not wish to lose or put in jeopardy any further the authorities for criminal investigations.

I believe that the decision that I made at that point in time was a good decision.

CIGIE is a very, very important part of oversight in this government.

there was not one audit performed on one contract.

So just because I want to clarify this, because I will tell you, candidly, I do not want to lay out my fellow Members of Congress here, but an investment of that kind of money in a report to Congress when there is the kind of audit work…

Isn't CIGIE back doing an independent review of whether or not you have complied with the audit now?

It is very easy to waste a lot of money on an audit in a contingency operation if you cannot get it to the decisionmakers quickly enough.

I am not trying to play 'gotcha' here, General, but there are seven requirements in Section (h)...

The law requires a comprehensive audit plan.

It is also important when we found that the dogs that were supposed to sniff for explosives were not trained to sniff the right explosives.

there was so much work to be done as an auditor. I mean, everywhere you looked there was a contract that needed another set of eyes.

Which obviously could be exacerbated in a contingency theater where we are fighting a battle, and one of the battles we are fighting is, in fact, corruption.

Please protect our money. Find a way to bring that number up so that we can feel confident that the millions we are giving you, we are getting millions in return.

$10 million. And do you see what they have recovered for a $10 million taxpayer investment? $149 million.

We have conducted several contract audits.

This is a hearing on the role of the Special Inspector General (SIG) in oversight of contracts in Afghanistan.

I am talking about how many times have the four of you sat down with General Fields and talked about contingency operation audits, writ large?

the participation of women in the Afghan election is an important policy problem, and it is an important part of the overall mission in Afghanistan

Yes, ma'am, we have looked at those matters as they related to contracts...

I am saying it is very troubling that you would not be aware of those questions before paying someone the amount of $450,000 a year to do work for the Federal Government.

I do not think that you are the right person for this job, General Fields.

I have a lot of concern that someone would think it was appropriate to do a risk assessment and call it a risk assessment without an auditor on staff.

it is very hard for me to reconcile the notion that a lack of funding has been your problem?

Inspectors General in the active military report to the commander and are there as the eyes and ears of the commander.