Claire McCaskill

Thank you for the opportunity to appear before the Senate Aviation Subcommittee on June 17, 2009.

Mr. Arny, what is being done to address inaccurate reporting of the number of such relocatable facilities due in part to lack of a central OSD database and clear definition of what constitutes such a structure?

But, I'm interested in what you said, though, because I'm sure you're aware that it is perfectly acceptable to the FAA for the repair work to be done in noncertified stations.

Mr. Arny, how much of the $7 billion that the DOD is scheduled to receive from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) will be spent on relocatable facilities?

I'd like to talk a little bit about maintenance. I have worked on this issue since I came to the Senate, on foreign repair stations.

I don't think government should ever make librarians cry.

I think your nomination is such a wonderful development for this very, very important and neglected part of our government.

It is in the self-interest of the Congress, perhaps most importantly, to encourage those who are aware of wrongdoing to make their disclosures to Congress.

I think we need to get to the business of respecting and being deferential to whistleblowers and giving them every right we can possibly give them.

How weird is it that they could be sitting side by side with a Federal employee doing the exact same work, seeing the exact same problem, and one would be entitled to a jury trial because they worked for a private contractor and the other…

Well, we know that 46 percent of the fraud that has been uncovered, according to the certified fraud examiners (CFEs) report, they sampled 1,000 cases in 2008; 46 percent of the fraud we found came from employees.

I must tell you I am perplexed and confused that everyone would not want a whistleblower to be able to get a jury trial--every whistleblower on the face of the planet.

We are not asking to protect the disclosure of classified information to anyone who is not cleared to receive it.

OK. The contracts you just referred to, does your company have all those contracts?

Was there any thought to having a fraud investigation, because clearly when you have that kind of arrangement, speaking as a former auditor, that is generally when you have kickbacks going on.

is it maybe time to say that we should not be guarding embassies in theater with private security contracts?

And for the British Embassy in----

I think that you want the contracting officers in the Federal Government to be tough on contractors.

I think that you have tried diligently to provide us with documents.

Thank you, Mr. Brinkley.

I am more worried about the relationship between the procurement official in this contract and the person they bought the stuff from.

Could you shed any light on the situation with the counterfeit purchases and the procurement officer buying almost $400,000 worth of goods from his wife?

And finally, before I defer to Senator Collins, you are receiving around $37 million a year on this contract?

Well, I am confused. If you are losing $1 million--did you say $1 million a month, you are losing?

We have thousands and thousands of men and women in uniform in Afghanistan.