taken a number of positive steps since june 2010 at different levels to provide for more effective management and oversight of contracts, including improving contracting policies and practices, establishing new support relationships, formalizing policies and procedures, and increasing the use of dedicated contracting staff to manage and improve its acquisitions, however you we found three areas at arlington where additional improvements are needed. first, maintaining complete data on contracts. second, defining responsibilities for contracting support, and, third, determining contract staffs needs. i will briefly summarize key findings in these three areas. first, with respect to maintaining complete data. when we did our review, we were able to pull together information on arlington contracts from various sources,

including support organizations, but there were shortcomings with each of these sources. to be able to identify track and ensure the effective management and oversight of its contracts, arlington leadership needs complete data on all contracts. second, with respect to support relationships, the army has taken a number of steps to better are align arlington contract support with the expertise of its partners. for example, arlington has agreements with the army information technology agency, i.t.a., and the army analytics group to help manage its i.t. infrastructure. while these agreements spell out the services that i.t.a. will provide to arlington and performance metrics against which i.t.a. will be measured, these are all very positive steps. these agreements do not specifically address i.t.a.'s contract management rules and

responsibilities in support of arlington requirements. although officials told us that they were aware of their roles and responsibilities, the question is what happens when personnel change? going forward, sustained attention on the part of arlington and its partners will be important to ensure that contracts of all types and risk levels are managed effectively. third, with respect to dedicated contract staffing arrangements, three contracts specialists positions have been identified for arlington, but have not been filled. arlington is presently receiving support from fort belvoir, contracting office in the form of ten positions. five funded by arlington and five by fort belvoir. there's a need for more contracting specialists and developing plans to fill this

new position in fy 13. in closing, the success of the army's efforts to improve contracting and management at the cemetery will depend on management sustained attention and efforts to institutionalize positive steps taken today. accordingly we made a number of recommendations in our december 2011 report to improve contract management and oversight in the three areas where we found shortcomings. for the most part d.o.d. agreed with our findings and that there is a need to take action and provide a time frame for doing so. we will continue to monitor their progress. mr. chairman and members of the subcommittee, this concludes my short statement. i will be happy to answer questions. >> thank you very much, ms. martin. we now have mr. brian lepore. >> thank you, mr. chairman. chairman wilson, ranking member davis, chairman whitman and ranking member cooper and members of the subcommittee,

thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to present our findings from our review of oversight and management of arlington national cemetery. as you know, we issued our report on the management and oversight of arlington on december 15th of last year. my testimony is based on our report, and i will make two points today. first, i'll discuss the policies and procedures that the current leadership team at arlington put in place to begin to address the deficiencies that became apparent, and i'll identify some of our recommendations to assist in that endeavor and secondly discuss factor that could potentially affect the feasibility and advisability of transferring arlington from the army to the department of veterans affairs. the v.a. here's the bottom line -- i think it is fair to say the current leadership team at arlington has taken many positive steps at the cemetery current leadership team at arlington has taken many positive steps at the cemetery to address the deficiencies and make improvements.

the army has made progress in a range of areas, including chain of custody procedures to ensure proper accountability over remains, better providing information assurance, and improving procedures to address inquiries from the families and the public. however, we believe some steps are still needed to ensure that these changes are institutionalized and will prove lasting for the long term, long after the spotlight has faded. therefore, we've made recommendations in six areas. first, we believe they should complete the enterprise architecture to guide new investigati investments and information technology to ensure the investments are aligned with the future operational requirements. second, an updated workforce plan to ensure the workforce is properly seasoned and trained. third, an internal assessment program to gauge how the cemetery is doing and making any improvements that may be warranted. fourth, improving coordination with the cemetery's operational partners. the military district of

washington, the military honor guards and joint based myer henderson hall to ensure, for example, that scheduling conflicts are avoided and the right honor guards are available when needed. fifth, a strategic plan, or campaign plan, with expected outcomes, performance metrics and milestones, and, sixth, written policies explaining how to assist the families when such assistance is warranted. the cemetery leadership has generally concurred with our recommendations and has begun to implement them. we are encouraged by this. now my final point. the question of the feasibility and advisability of transfers arlington from the army to the va. it's certainly feasible. as you know, congress transferred more than 80 national cemeteries managed by the army to the va in the 1970s. however, several factors could affect the advisability of this. such a change can have potential costs and benefits challenges. it can lead to certain

transition challenges and can affect the characteristics that make arlington unique among our national cemeteries. thus, it may be premature to change jurisdiction right now, since the army has significantly improved its management of arlington. here are some of the specific challenges that could arise in a jurisdictional change. first, simply identifying the goals of the transfer. second, the army and the va have their own staff, processes and systems to determine burial eligibility and scheduling and managing burials. as an example, arlington has more restricted eligibility for inground burials than the va. third, arlington's appropriations structure is different than the va's, and should you make a jurisdiction change, congress may wish to review that and determine what is the right course of action. fourth, arlington provides military funeral honors that the va does not. fifth, arlington hosts many special ceremonies every year, some involving the president and

visits heads of state. and, sixth, arlington is one of the most visited tourist destinations in washington, hosting over 4 million visitors a year. finally, we do think opportunities exist for the army and the va to collaborate more for the mutual benefit of both organizations, but most importantly for the benefit of our active duty service members, our veterans, and their families. here are examples. va has staff dedicated to establishing eligibility for burial in their cemeteries and a central scheduling center that could assist arlington. conversely, va officials are examining geographic information systems or global positioning technology should be used in their cemeteries, but the army already does this and could conceivably provide assistance to the va. since no formal mechanism exists yet to identify collaboration opportunities, we recommended that the two departments establish one, and they agreed. in conclusion, we believe the army has worked through the crisis and taken steps to put arlington national cemetery on a

sustainable path to ensure effective cemetery operations. our recommendations are offered in the spirit of assisting that process along so that we never have to come before you again to have this conversation. mr. chairman, that concludes my prepared remarks and i would be happy to answer any questions that you or the other members of the subcommittee may have. thank you, director lepore. i want to thank director martin. both of you were very helpful and i even appreciated your final comment that you didn't want to have to come back. so that's -- truly, you are helping make that possible. so thank you. arlington executive director, ms. kathryn condon. >> chairman wilson, chairman wittman and distinguished members ofhsubcommittees, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the progress that we have made at arlington national cemetery. as both of the chairmen and ranking member davis and cooper both know from our monthly updates, there still is a lot of

work left that we have to do at arlington. but the army and the entire cemetery are prepared to address the challenges that remain. but today significant congress has been made. progress as a result of our concerted focus on establishing repeatable standards, measures and operating procedures that emphasize safety, proficiency, professionalism and accountability. the implementation of state of the art technology now make the hay -- hallowed grounds of arlington one of the most technologically advanced in the country. a different perspective than 19 months ago when the cemetery lacked stewardship was a paper-based operation using a typewriter and having only one fax machine. when calls were not answered and the workforce was not properly manned, trained or equipped. but practicing sound fiscal stewardship and displaying transparency in cemetery operations is paramount in our effort to restore the faith,

trust and honor our veterans and their families so rightfully deserve. a formal chain of custody process has been implemented to maintain positive, verifiable control of remains throughout both the interment and inurnment process at the cemetery. and we have reviewed years of financial records and recovered funds. $26.8 million, to be exact. funds that were used, to fully fund, as you know, chairman wittman, the construction of the ninth column barium. and to make necessary improvements to years of backlogs in maintenance and repair. you have my commitment we will continue to examine prior year funding records to see if there are more dollars that can be recovered to put back into arlington. in the accountability report recently submitted to this congress, we have examined and

photographed 259,978 grave sites, markers and niches. and the accountability task force compiled the photos and coupled them with our existing records. for the first time we now have consolidated 147 years of cemetery records. records are that were created from logbook entries. our paper-based records of interment and grave cards that we used to have in our interment schedules, but are no longer there, and the automated records that we did have. and we now have them into a single accountable database. since the submission of the report, the total validated grave sites without any burial discrepancies in evidence is now 212,674. and we are working diligently to continue to close the remaining 18% of the cases to bring our efforts on accountability to closure. the creation of the single complete verifiable database will soon allow families and

other stakeholders with internet access to search and produce a picture of each and every marker in the cemetery, and to review that with publicly available information pertaining to each grave site. they can do this on our state-of-the-art website, and soon to be smartphone application that we will be launching to the public. in the area of contracting, we have made significant progress in contract management, transforming our contracting activities to position the army national cemetery's program for long-term sustainment. the army has resourced our contracting support and oversight, adding skilled acquisition, support personnel to support my staff, and properly training the workforce involved in the acquisition process. in order to orchestrate the many activities required to effectively run arlington, we have developed the army national cemetery's campaign plan, which codifies in one strategic document the long-term vision

for the operation of the cemetery at both arlington and the soldier airmen's home. the vehicle the superintendent pat and i will use to ensure we do achieve our future vision for the cemetery. it incorporates the significant guidance, support and recommendations received from secretary mchugh, the gao, from the army inspector general, from the army audit agency, from the northern virginia technology council, and from distinguished members of congress, in particular, members of this committee. coupled with the campaign plan, we are developing our enterprise architecture and technology acquisition road map which will serve at our i.t. blueprint and ensure our i.t. investments are effectively and efficiently meetine