for southwest asia joint planning group, a comprehensive oversight plan for southwest asia, and our many investigative task force is. in addition, in may 2009, the joint planning group established a new subcommittee to coordinate audit and inspection work solely in afghanistan and pakistan. this subcommittee chaired by the inspector general for the u.s. agency for international development, mr. gambatesa, issued in august 2009 the afghanistan pakistan conference of oversight plan. i think the committee for the opportunity to discuss our ongoing efforts, and i look forward to continuing our strong working relationship with congress, and all oversight organizations engaged in afghanistan and pakistan. >> good morning, chairman tierney, ranking member flake, members of the committee. thank you for inviting me here to testify today on behalf of the office of inspector general for the u.s. agency for international development. i am pleased to be here along with my colleagues from other oversight organizations with whom we work closely as execute our audit inspection and investigative responsi

the southwest asia joint planning group, the comprehensive oversight plan for southwest asia, and our many investigative task forces. in addition, in may 2009, the planning group established a new subcommittee to coordinate audits and inspection work solely in afghanistan and pakistan. this subcommittee issued in august 2009 the afghanistan/pakistan comprehensive oversight plan. thank the committee for the average 90 to discuss our efforts. i look forward to continuing our strong working relationship with congress and all over such organizations engaged in afghanistan and pakistan. >> good morning. thank you for inviting me here to testify today on behalf of the office. i am pleased to be here along with my colleagues from over -- other oversight organizations for whom we work closely as we continue our responsibilities. mr. merkley, my office has overseen programs from our regional office, increasing our staffing levels has increased. we have recently established a full-time presence of officers in this country, placing an auditor and investigator in kabul and two auditors in is lama

for southwest asia, including afghanistan and pakistan, there are three critical coordination and plannings. the southwest is a joint planning group, the comprehensive plan for south west is a, and our many investigative task forces. in addition, in may, 2009, the joint planning group established a new subcommittee to coordinate audit and inspection work solely in afghanistan and pakistan. this subcommittee, chaired by the inspector general for the u.s. agency for international development, issued in august 2009 the afghanistan/pakistan comprehensive oversight plan. i thank the committee for the opportunity to discuss our ongoing efforts, and i look forward to continuing our strong working relationship with congress and all overside organizations engaged in afghanistan and pakistan. >> [no audio] >> good morning, members of the committee. thank you for inviting me here to testify today on behalf of the office of inspector general for u.s. agency for international development. i'm pleased to be here, along with my colleagues from other oversight organizations, with whom we work closely as t

we have got people every day in southwest asia -- southwest asia on the ground, auditors and investigatorsd meeting regularly with the commanders. now commander does not have to wait for 36 -- three months or six months or even a year to get a report. he or she finds out right away what is happening and they can make corrective action almost immediately. we are very proactive. we have made some significant steps forward in the last several years. the department of defense oig, for instance, we have doubled our auditing at investigating staff over the past 12 months. the numbers are not great. we have gone from six to 14, but that is significant. we have almost doubled our entire southwest asia audit and investigative work force. and the next 12 months we will do more. we are born to increase that significantly more. -- going to increase that significantly more. the point is that we are trying to get ahead of the curve. if you look at it from 2003, we have come a long way. but what we did yesterday is not come -- good enough for today and what we are going to do tomorrow is going to have to

the golf in southwest asia is one of those regions. it brings together prime ministers, foreign and defense ministers, chiefs of defense staff, and other security officials to discuss regional security challenges and to develop sound policies to address them. last year december 2008, the u.s. defense secretary was asked in public session about the right policy mix in afghanistan. he replied in part in this way. this is the afghan's fight. it is their future at stake. i want -- i believe the highest priorities is to get resources and the country to help train and accelerate the expansion of afghan forces and to get more of them to fight in their own country. we are there to help them. i do worry that i am prepared to go forward with forces that the commander requested in 2009 but i do worry about the size of the footprint foreign forces on afghan soil. having been engaged in the fight to expel the soviets 20 years ago, i am more mental than most that with 120,000 troops the soviets still lost. we need to give serious consideration about