ms. muniz how was he started construction on this facility prior to having a security parameters in place? how is it the under secretary of management has certified it is safe and secure but they have not completed all the security test? >> i will take that question first then i will handed over who is the one who certifies to confirm that these projects meet the standards. i will remind the committee when a project is certified and alternately the undersecretary is certifying a design. the design of the london embassy met the requirements that were provided by diplomatic security. by using very complex calculations and running those for hundreds or thousands of hours would is possible to confirm that the design meets the standards and that is what was done. >> why did you start construction prior to the certification? >> i would argue that we did not. we awarded a construction contract as the department has done for the last year's >> when do you think we started construction? >> for years, a

ms. muniz. bring those mikes right up close. we need the projection plus we need it for the -- there we go. thank you. >> thank you. chairm chairman, i appreciate the opportunity to appear before you today to discuss the u.s. department of state's project to build a new u.s. embassy in london. i'm director of the bureau of overseas building operations at the u.s. department of state. as the single real property manager for diplomatic properties overseas, we manage the design, construction, acquisition, sale and maintenance of the department's worldwide property portfolio. that portfolio includes the property platform supporting 275 missions in 190 countries and has over $14 billion in projects and design and construction. like you, the state department is deeply committed to the safety and security of our personnel serving abroad. every new design and construction project that obo undertakes meets security and life safety standards required by law and our experts and the bureau of diplomatic se

ms. muniz and mr.starr whited the overseas operations and security role i on memorandum rather than the foreign affairs manuals to determine when to begin construction facility's? >> i'm not sure i understood your question correctly. i think it was wide of rely on our published policy versus. >> on published random. >> i would say that we rely on the law when it comes to certification. i would turn this over to mr. starr. >> in terms of certification i agree with the inspector general that we have a section that is out of date that is actually saying something that's different than public law. if there is any question about what takes precedence at public law over the foreign affairs manual. >> what is your response to the oig's binding to the draft memorandum without telling anyone is likely to mislead offices including congress. we expect they department to follow this published policy. >> serve the public law requires us to certify to congress that the facility resulting from the construction projec

ms. muniz or mr. star either one, ms. muniz since we have heard from the other two papalists. >> let me respond first to your earlier question about the importance of looking at new materials and -- new materials for the state department, in any event. curtain wall technology is really the predominant technology that is used to build what we call high-rise buildings and high rise is defined as anything above seven stories. what we found as we were moving forward in our construction project is that in our construction program rather is that increasingly it was difficult for us to find large sites in cities that are quite developed and where real estate is quite expensive. so it was really in our interest and the department's interest to take advantage of technologies that would allow us to build buildings higher and to do that efficiently and economically. so that is the benefit of testing new products or using new products to new standards, such as curtain wall, though again, curtain wall has been in use in the constructio

ms. muniz: i agree it is an awful lot of work. but under the definition that we use and have used for a lot of we do site pilings stabilize the -- to stabilize the earth, the soil, and the site before we come out of the ground. linick agreed with chairman of the house oversight committee jason chaffetz. rep. chaffetz: mr. linick, is that construction? mr. linick: to me, that does look like construction. but from the point of view of the report, it is irrelevant. the department's on policy says you can't even award a contract prior to certification. sharyl: linick says if the embassy had failed safety tests after so much construction, it could have cost taxpayer millions to correct. there's a long history of wasted tax dollars on embassy projects. in the late 1980's, u.s. embassy construction in the soviet union ground to a halt when it was discovered the soviet-made steel beams were embedded with kgb spy equipment. empty for 15 years, until it was taken apart, brick by brick, then rebuilt using american materials at a taxpayer cos