that's correct, senator. >> and mr. quinn were you the lead partner for pwc tax consulting services on this matter? >> yes, i was. >> and did mr. williams report to you? >> yes. >> and you mentioned some of the key contacts at caterpillar and among them were -- i'm asking you, were they robin baron, the tax director, rodney perkins, senior international tax manager? >> yes. >> we had regular interaction. >> all right. my first round of time is over. senator johnson? >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. quinn, in the earlier panel i was asking the professors the basic relation. how does the irs interact with a large multinational corporation? i'd like to expand that not only to a large multinational corporation like caterpillar but a large accounting firm like yourselves. can you describe how the irs interacts during the whole tax year? >> the irs is interaction at caterpillar in particular during the entire year is a continuewise audit exercise as you described earlier. they do maintain a continuous presence on site. they actively

. >> did you know mr. quinn and mr. williams had to figure out a story? >> they had these views they were going to do some dancing, they had plans to be retired when it came to a head. were you aware of that? you were on the audit team? >> i was not aware of these e-mails. >> did you know the tax consultants took inconsistent positions regarding market intangibles in csaro and ciaco? >> i believe -- >> were you aware? were you aware of the apparent inconsistencies? >> we don't -- i don't agree with that inconsistency. >> you don't agree there was inconsistency? >> correct. >> okay. mr. bowers, an expert said he never heard of a company keeping two sets of an inventory book separate from the general inventory system. one to track the parts for the business enterprise and the other to keep track for business purposes. prior to caterpillar's use, had you ever heard of a virtual, a virtual inventory system? >> senator, management, different management books from legal books are common. >> did you ever -- i'm not talking about that. i'm talking business system

>> quinn: so predictable. mr. chivalrous to the rescue. [ sighs ] what a drip.