mr. metzler, was mr mr. higginbotham responsible for the management of the information technology efforts at the cemetery? >> yes, ma'am, he was my designated person to work on that program. >> were you aware that at least $200,000 had been spent for the development of an internment scheduling system even though a product had never been developed. >> i was aware that that program was under development, yes, ma'am, i was aware that that was almost completed and it was stopped -- i guess i shouldn't have used the baseball analogy but that's what i was referring to that program was being updated and almost completed when the investigation start and that stopped everything dead in its tracks. >> what is your assessment of the information technology contracts that the cemetery entered into? >> i'm not very familiar with that, ma'am. that's really the contracting officer's responsibility, i just have a very general knowledge of it. >> were you aware that millions of dollars were being spent on the i.t. contracts a

mr. metzler were following policy and that mr. smith was going rogue? >> i have records of a number of conversations with mr. smith about things that he was unhappy with and in some cases i agreed with mr. smith and took action. in other cases, i looked into it and found out some facts and ended up disagree wg him. >> was there ever a time that you lost confidence in the leadership at arlington national cemetery? >> over the last year, yes. >> but before that you had no problem with the leadership there? >> there are all ways issues ma'am, disagreements and issues. >> but you didn't think they rose to the level of you -- getting out of your niche and kind of trying to grab people by the neckties or by the sweaters or whatever you have to grab them by and say, we've got to sit down we have a real problem at arlington? >> i was not aware of most of the things that have been revealed over the last year in the media except that i knew as we all knew that there were problems with the burial records. i understand those to be historical problems and paperwork