.-- mr. fiore says the agreement, which you have with mr. berger, which is you can enter into an agreement ect., ect. which the contractor can demonstrate that notwithstanding without suspension or debarment so forth and so on. did aid have a potential basis for suspension or debarment of louis berger. >> thank you for the opportunity to address lose berger and the issues. i understand the outrage you have behind your questions, and i want to assure you i too share that outrage when i heard from louis berger had been doing for a period of years through the falsification of the interim class rates. by the time i became aware of this, and i will say quite frankly that our relationship with our inspector general's office in a timely information has been much improved since that time, however, by the time that i became aware of the issues through the department of justice, when we met with louis berger, they had already taken substantial remedies. >> could i go to the particular question i was asking? >> yes, sir. >> which was -- and i'm taking

mr. fiore, and then we will take questions. >> chairman shays, chairman thibault, distinguished numbers of the commission, thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony before you here today on this important issue of contractor accountability. i served as the drug of soldier and family legal services from the office of the judge advocate general of the department of army. since october 2008 i also serve as the department of the army suspension and debarment official. the army follows a suspension and debarment regulatory processes set forth in the federal acquisition regulation, subpart 9.4. pursuant to the regulation, an agency may suspend, debar are otherwise declared ineligible certain contractors in order to protect the interests of the government on behalf of the public. suspension and debarment are prospected remedies in which past misconduct for unsatisfactory performance provides the context and insight to the contractors present and future responsibility. contractors are suspende