mr. norbert doyle and mr. ford hurd, associate deputy assistant secretary in the department of veterans affairs office of acquisitions and logistics. mr. makofski, your complete written statement will be made part of the record and you are recognized for five minutes. >> chairman johnson, ranking member donnelly, and members of the is subcommittee. thank you for the opportunity to speak about the department of veterans affairs ability to deliver quality care and acquire prosthetics and other devices. i'm accompanied today by lucille beck, rehabilitation services and acting chief consultant prosthetics and century aid service. mr. norbert doyle and mr. ford hurd san hurd assistant secretary. to improve the business processes governing the procurement of prosthetic devices for veterans. we are taking care to ensure these changes approve the accountability of these purchases while maintaining the high quality of care and clinical decision making critical to veterans health care. enhancing access and tailoring dev

mr. norbert doyle, who is vha's chief procurement and logistics officer. va's prosthetics and sensory aid service is the largest and most comprehensive provider of prosthetic devices and sensory aids in the world, offering a full range of equipment and services. all enrolled veterans may receive any prosthetic item prescribed by a va clinician without regard to service connection when it is determined to promote, preserve or restore the health of the individual and is in accord with generally accepted standards of medical practice. i will briefly summarize the major initiatives under way to improve the quality and availability of amputation care. these fall under five general headings, staffing and community partnerships, accreditation of va laboratories, improved training for va staff, greater research into amputation and clinical issues, and collaborations with the department of defense. first, va's prosthetic and sensory aid service has a robust clinical staff of prosthetists as more than 75 locations and also partners with the private sector to provide

mr. norbert doyle, who is vha's chief procurement logistics officer today. we were anticipating some of these questions, and he's available to provide more information about the change and what's happening. >> just if you would, before you start, so does that mean heretofore, the va was not compliant, if that's the basis of your change that compliance was an issue, maybe you could make that clear to us. >> yes, ma'am. thank you, dr. beck. ma'am, yes, the impetus was to include contracting to bring vha and all the other va contracting organizations in better alignment with the federal acquisition regulations. we also, it's my understanding the department recognized several years ago actually that they were weak in certain areas, in contract administration and awarding of contracts, and this was also to bring it in house to ensure proper stewardship of the government dollars. in reference your question did we talk with veteran service organizations, actually, i don't believe we did before we started the process. however, last week, and i'm happy to meet with a