Afghanistan and this has included 43 individuals and companies identified as having actively supported insurgent groups. Unfortunately, not every agency in the u. S. Government has the same fire in the belly. When we refer companies or individuals for suspension and debarment, those individuals are not acted on expeditiously as we want. We have proposed granting sigar or the theater commanders that can allowance to get rid of bad actors as soon as we find them. We are also working more closely than any other Law Enforcement agency with the Afghan Police and prosecutors to get afghans charged, tried, and convicted in afghan accords for bribery and corruption. Remember, this may sound odd to you, why are we using u. S. Court stepped in afghanistan, unlike in iraq where u. S. Contractors were predominant, the u. S. Government promoted an Afghan First Initiative which emphasized prioritizing contracts with afghanowned and operated companies. That is why in order to fulfil our mission of combating fraud, in many cases, we need to work through the f. Kennan Law Enforcement and legal system when we uncover criminal activity. That is a challenge but it has paid dividends. Just recently, a prominent individual in one province was convicted and sentenced to two years in jail after sigar agents went undercover and take him offering bribes. Another thing i told my staff on the first day of work was that we have to be relevant by approaching our work like i did what i was an attorney having clients. We have to view the people use our report and our investigations as their clients. If what we produce is not used by the commander in the field for the state department for the aid administrator, we have failed. They are our clients. If our audits are not relevant to congress, the congressional committees, who are our clients, for them making decisions on appropriations are authorizations, we failed. If my criminal investigators produce investigations that the department of justice does not take to trial, then we failed. I emphasize to them that you have clients and you have to produce reports and you have to produce investigations that are useful to them. The first thing i did with glenmont, went to afghanistan and talk to the generals and went around town and talk to the state department and Defense Department and spent time up in the hills talking to the various congressional committees and their staffs, one of them is here today about what they needed and what we were doing or not doing to support them in their missions. I hope and i think it has succeeded. The other thing i did to some it may have appeared awed also reached out to a number of clients. It is the academic and think tank community. We dont have all the answers. That is one reason why i came here to talk. We, the experts think, we are doing right thing in our wallets, investigations, and our targets in afghanistan. I hope that works and of that is one reason why i am here today is to talk to many of you. We s sigar need to get our job right. We at sigar need to get our job right by ensuring that taxpayer dollars are spent wisely. And are protected from waste, fraud, and abuse. If we dont get it right, then those lives and that treasurer we have spent our last 11 years will have been wasted. It will have been spent in vain. That is something that i can give you a commitment today i and my staff will do everything in our power to ensure that does not happen. Thank you very much. I look forward to answering any questions. [applause] [inaudible] somebody have a question . If not i will leave. Oh, ok. In the past decade, we have seen all sorts of accounts, both the strengths and weaknesses of the government relied on the private sector for security and logistics and development. Going forward, nobody envisions that government will not be relying on them for future contingency operations. What are your possible recommendations on insuring the best effective accountability and oversight in the future . A couple of years ago, Stewart Bowen made a recommendation for a crossagency that would do that. I dont know if that is a good idea or bad. I think that is a good question. If iknow if i agree would agree with stuarts suggestion of setting up a permanent entity. I think he made that suggestion before i was with sigar. I am a strong believer in specialization. We are kind of a unique bunch, specialized ig. Congress in its infinite wisdom actually gave us tremendous authorities, tremendous powers. If you look at legislation for the regular ig compared with stored bowens legislation and mine, you tripped over the term independent. i think it is mentioned 15 times in the first paragraph. We are so independent, maybe we are scary, we can get the job done. We are given Greater Authority for hiring and firing. We come into existence and use obligated funds and i think that is a good approach. You come in, you grow and when the problem is finished, you go away. I disagree with his proposal. I think youll hear from some speakers later other created. S worwere other approaches could be effective i just personally, may be having been in a special ig, i am happy with the powers i got. If you get the money and leadership fast enough, the special ig approach is a good way to handle contingency operations. Is, sir . Thank you very much. I may founder and adviser to transparency international. Stuart bowen wrote a good book with many good reports. As u. S. A id and the department of defense really learn from the lessons of iraq when it comes to afghanistan today . Talking to my friends at integrity watch in afghanistan, one gets the impression that things are getting worse, not better. Your opening sounded like that but i would like your opinion stepping back a bit and talking about those two agencies which have a major role. I have only been there for six months. I have spent my whole life doing oversight and accountability by focused on afghanistan for six months for im not as good an expert as some people in this room. I am impressed by dod. I think their response to some of the problems i dont know if they were identified in iraq i am particularly impressed with tax a task force 2010. General lon go is fantastic and that was said to deal with the contract in problems. Many people i have dealt with a number of task forces were setup and i think they are good and we have worked closely with all of them. I am not certain aid got the message. It is too early to tell. You may all think it will end in 2014 but there is every construction budget coming along after words. There will be a lot of time to tell. I hope aid has we are looking at a because we want to make certain they planned for the new contingency and that is what the security situation is. I am not an expert on this but i have been extremely impressed with the commanders on the ground and how they take security not security, but contracts and abuses and theft and problems like that so seriously. I will be meeting him shortly general allan has been one of my best friends and their agencies best friends in afghanistan. On supporting our mission and allowing us to be embedded with troops. You accomplish so much when that happens. I dont want to dwell on the question but let me give you an example you get down to the local commanders we have seen differences depending on which reserve unit shows up. The commander from a reserve unit shows up at one of these operating basis and takes contract abuse, theft seriously the amount of thats just drop off. If he does not, if he does not talk to my people, if he does not really care, he just punches his ticket, problems galore. It really matters that they take this seriously. I hope that answers your question. Yes, sir . I was found director aid. I think we are on the same side. I wonder whether the abuses of contract and, particularly in light of aids own findings that there are only three capable Government Entities they have identified in afghanistan, means oft holbrooks policy contract and was flawed. In vietnam, 2 3 of the Development Initiatives there were found after the war not to have specified out comes and Development Impacts in the planning that led, in part, to such a disappointment on the hill at the foreign aid act was voted down in the senate in 1974. Do you think findings like the Inspector General has found are going to be so serious on the hill that it in dangers the entire vote . Maybe we should wait until the other panel gets up. That is more direct to the hilt. I dont know what will happen with the helps response. Response . Ls [inaudible] there is pros and cons with the approach toward local contractors. I could understand where theyre coming from. I come from the midwest and i am not too sophisticated. Weve got to be able to ask the question does our contract or decision on what ever we are doing their does it mean our National Security and does it meet our National Security objective . Do the afghans wanted . The third question is do they actually need it . The fourth question you want to ask is can they sustain it . Whether it is designing a program of contract and afghan first or building a base for coming up with it Program Training judges, i think you have to ask those questions. Those are simple questions. It is not rocket science. I used to teach in american university. Used to teach courses to cops and prosecutors. This is not rocket science. I dont know if aid should be rocket science. I have been impressed that some people have said we really need a designed program knowing where we are working. If we know were working in the most corrupt country and the world, we design a program that protects the funding. I was very impressed with that. I have not seen a program with that bill 10. People tell me they are thinking about it. Some the someone told me the norwegians do that but i have not run into many norwegians. Yes, sir . You are norwegian . No. One thing i came away with is that the afghans are very good at running their own businesses but what we do as we create an incentive or by running a business is about profits. I have partnered with an afghan and several afghans over there and we are trying to build infrastructure where afghans have a stake in the infrastructure itself rather than just jobs today and maybe the americans come back and fix it later. I was wondering what your perspectives are on where you see this kind of model . Have you seen this kind of model employed by comes to Building Infrastructure in afghanistan . The simple answer is no. We just did a report a number of audits on the afghan electrical grid. We just released a couple of weeks ago this is the problem we thought was a great idea for the afghans to install meters so they could bill for electricity use. We found that nobody ever talked to the afghans. It was 10 or 15 million, very small and there are meters in in a warehouse because no one talked to the afghans. They have no Technical Capability to install the meters. We went out and bought more meters. That is unfortunate. We did an audit, one of the first of its when i came in, on the afghan infrastructure program. They were big ticket projects that had to do with dams and bridges. It was a situation where we did not talk to the afghans, we did not coordinate with them, we did not coordinate with the Asian Development bank. We poured millions of dollars into a program. Notnot saying there are programs like that. I have not run across one yet. I would love to, like the norwegian, i would love to meet them and see how they design programs that include prevention but thats what i am told. It is the learning experience for me. Yes, sir . I am a grad student at american university. I know you are investigating criminal activity in afghanistan. How could you crackdown on someone like that . It is amazing it is going on in the United States as far as finding previous afghan officials and one is suspected of corruption and embezzlement. Is there anything going on in terms inside the United States in terms of cracking down on former afghan officials . I cannot discuss any long ago ongoing investigations. We deal with facts. We deal of evidence. Where that takes us, we follow. We are unique or in afghanistan but we also have indictments and investigations, criminal investigations in the United States. I believe we just arrested and convicted a senior enlisted man for taking bribes. As a matter of fact, we have a unique approach. I had my own prosecutors on my staff. I pay their salaries and they are called sigpros. We have special investigations going on. I dont want to comment on any there are speculations and allegations out there and that is good for a newspaper article. I have to deal with facts. I have to deal with evidence. That is difficult to get because a lot of my evidence is in afghanistan and the afghan citizens or thirdparty nationals who may have worked and are gone it is not easy. If it was easy, anybody could do it. It is something were doing in the United States. Yes, sir . I am from National Defense university. It is one thing first of all, thank you, for confirming my worst expectations. Is my speech that bad . Auditing the building of buildings and infrastructure is one thing but a lot of u. S. Taxpayer money is being spent on more Traditional Development programs that do a partner Capacity Building an Institution Building and democratization and education. Do you have a strategy how to audit the effectiveness of those investments . We do. We produced, under my watch, the first joint strategy for doing audits and investigations in that area in afghanistan with the aidag, dodag, and the state ag. It lays out a strategy where were focusing on the most important programs by dollar amounts and impact on our mission. It is a 50page strategy but we do have a strategy. It was not until i showed up that we had a joint strategy. We have been spending money there for eight years10 years before but no one had come up with a joint strategy as to how we tout target for audits. Yes, sir, in the way back . Initially in terms of reconstruction in afghanistan, you outlined a bleak situation. What do you think it takes to improve that situation and what role does your office play in that . Of all the problems to outline, what specific agencies do you hold responsible for those issues . I dont hold any particular agency responsible. Security is an issue. Corruption is an issue. I think every agency in the u. S. Government has to do more, has to do a better job, has to think about the questions i posed. Im not pointing to any particular agency. Which is the most important . Initially you outlined a bleak situation. What will it take to improve them what role will your office play in that . Our role, as an Inspector General for afghanistan, i dont to policy. I dont design and make the policy. I see how well it is carried out. I think the policy makers need to read the reports, talk to the agencies, and make a determination how they are proceeding in the right direction. I think that is our role, our continued role will be to find people who are stealing and try to prosecute them either in afghanistan courts or in u. S. Courts. We will identify problems with programs and give advice to congress and other clients as to how to improve those. That will be our role. Does the policy makers that have to take the information that i produceand other igs and synthesize that into how that will impact on our programs. I am getting the hook. I think we are going to move on to the panel. Fantastic. There is so much interest in this, we could go on for two more hours. We brought some of high interest, john, thank you so much for coming. Thank you so much. [applause] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2013] movielywoods most famous stars leave the film catheter capital to sell war bonds theyre all part of a contingent of some 50 screen celebrities giving their time and talents to aid to the national war effort. This is how Popular Culture presented the war. How was the war presented in movies from the 1940s dax how was it prevented presented . How was it presented in athletic events from the 1930s and 1940s . How was it presented in tin pan alley, in music, from the 1940s . Of this weekend, Popular Culture and world war ii with Perdue University prof. Randy roberts. That is saturday night at 8 00 and 10 00 eastern on cspan 3. Thursday, Vice President joe biden held a meeting with sportsmen and well but Interest Groups as part of the white houses Gun Violence Task force. He later met with National RifleAssociation Leaders and representatives from the entertainment industry. He said he will deliver recommendations to the president by tuesday. From the Eisenhower Executive Office building, this is 15 minutes let me thank you all for being here. You represent the bulk of sportsmen in this country, and you all know this is a complicated issue. There is no Singular Solution to how we deal with the kind of things that happen in new town or colorado or the general gun violence in america today. The president and i and the cabinet, we understand it is a complicated issue. That is why when the president asked me to do this in conjunction with my colleagues in cabinet, what we did was, we put together a pretty extensive list of what we consider to be the stakeholders wanting to deal with the issue of gun violence in america. The first groups mean that west where would not surprise you. National Law Enforcement organizations. Also, we got a sense of to give you a sense of what we have done so