mr. henke. >> mr. speed and mr. laboa, you are with military officers, right? with retired? >> correct. is bigger background you dealt with uncertainty in fact you were trained at some level to handle and a deal with uncertainty, is the bitter statement? >> fair statement. >> and as a commander you have operational experience, desert storm, haiti, other places, right mr. horn? correct. >> and you dealt with uncertainty, fog of format you might call it? >> yes, sir. >> so if you have a 30 plus career how long were you in the service? 29 years? >> 29 and a half. >> and you? >> 35 years. >> why then, would you expect there to be absolute clarity when you are a contractor working for the government? you have been in a wartime environment in iraq now for eight or nine years, seven or eight years i would imagine. why do you now as a contractor expected the government to have all of their t's crossed and always thought it and to come to you if and exactly right detailed plan before you can take action? >> i will answer that. mr. commissioner, i don't think we want an absolute plan,

. >> mr. henke. >> of like to ask a question about transition to logcap 4. there is a chart that displays the time line from acquisition strategy 2006 to award of the bls contract in iraq. the chart probably could be left by about two years because that is when the army recognize the desire to move from logcap 3 multiple vendors. my question is on the issue of transitioning in iraq. this is largely for general pillsbury. you transitioned in kuwait that is effectively complete, correct? the transition in afghanistan is ongoing, to say the least. you just awarded ctp part of the contract in iraq under logcap 4. you are considering whether to -- is bls larger? is that right? >> it is actually about the same. >> ok, multibillion-dollar contract? >> once again, it depends on how long you go. even ctp is less when you look at the current year and perhaps go on to 2011, the 2.3 billion number had the capability to go beyond that. >> on bls effort, the request for proposals was put at in january. you are thinking about awarding in may of 2010 with a conclusion of th

. >> thank you, mr. henke. you going to pass? ms. schinasi? >> we talked before about the uncertainty associated with the job done in the military doesn't want to have the final idea of what the end state is going to look like or when. it seems to me that's always the case in contingencies or bitterness contingency we also saw that twice. we thought first in the initial invasion into iraq and then on the side again with the surge, where there was uncertainty about what was going to happen, what kind of services were going to need, what department, how quickly needed to get there. is there any way you approach the straw down differently with respect to uncertainty. i mean one is ramping up and one is rated down. both cases it seems to me are operating under the same kinds of positions not knowing what the end state is going to be. >> man madam chair -- none commissioner, this is very different now. this time we have a specific specified task, which is to conduct logistic support to the draw down. much like before with the site task to give sinc

>> mr. henke, if i could just add, what the army caci and said, hey, we believe we're right in utilizing the delivery auto contract and we will deliver that in the near term and we will conduct a full and open competition over the long term. so that was the solution the army caci to the department with. >> okay. >> nothing further. thank you. >> thank you, commissioner. commissioner shays, please. >> thank you. i really like going last because i really i really appreciate the questions from my colleagues. i think there's tremendous irony in what we're doing here. the army has terrific people. and i just want to say to you, shay assad and to lieutenant general phillips and to mr. harrington, you get a 10 from me in terms of quality, thoughtfulness, cooperation with the commission and so on. now, having said that about the people in the military, the bureaucracy of the army is scary. and what we're wrestling with is the fact that we could come and go and we're not sure that the change will take plac

mr. harrington, my question is, what broke? on something this important, what broke? >> commissioner harrington, can i -- or harrington, henkeh, mr. assad 'cause you and i had a discussion -- >> yeah, i was going to talk about it. >> and you didn't know anything about it. >> right. >> you went through the assumption it went through his trap line. somehow it didn't get to you. >> well, let me -- let me give you a little bit of the background. what happened was -- i actually received a call from mr. thibault who had asked me had i -- had i heard about this particular procurement yet? and the concerns that the commissioned. i told him i hadn't but that i would look into it. we, in fact, did have -- >> you heard about the contract action from us? >> oh, sure, yeah. it was early on in the process. >> okay. >> it had not yet been decided exactly who was going to contract and what the army's plan was. i had my senior ses who does peer reviews intimately involved in it. and there was a legitimate question as to whether or not this was the appropriate mechanism to use. >> uh-huh. >> osd, frankly, did not necessarily concur with the a

commissioner henke, please. >> thank you, mr. chairman. we had a discussion earlier about whether its a sense of urgency or it is sheer workload. and i take your point, mr. akin. i heard you loud and clear that sometimes it's just an innocent out of work whether you're trying to put across your staff. i've been there. we have been there in different positions in the executive branch where you realize i don't have enough resources to get my day today activity done, much less new innovative ahead of the problem. can you, for the benefit of our understanding, is average on a couple of points in your joint testimony. sir, mr. harrington, i believe you are the armies senior procurement executive? >> oatmeal is in his position at this moment. >> you are dysfunctional lead and expertise to? yes, sir. >> you and the on have delegate in terms of the acquisition authority, that those out of your different command, the army corps of engineers, what are known as heads of contracting activities? >> yes, sir. >> how many hca's to have? >> with 17, sir?