Husband. Good. Mother,course, your joyce. Welcome. Our goal in conducting this toring is to the committee qualifications. Chris has provided responses to questions presented by the committee. Today members will be able to ask additional questions and hear from mr. Sharply in this open session. American his b. A. From university. A 1981, he received commission from the u. S. Air force where he trained as a special agent. Chris continue to serve in the air force and a variety of ofts, including as director security. Following his retirement, chris join the office of Inspector General at the department of energy as a civilian special agent. Since then chris has worked as the deputy i. G. For the department of energy and help to build a new oig office at the tarp program in the federal housing authority. In 2010 chris see the president ial award for Meritorious Service for that ark great 2012, crisp tart as federal civilian Law Enforcement officer and started his career at cia. Chris, if you do not mind me saying, i do not think you are very good at retiring. To 2015, chris served as deputy Inspector General at the cia. Since then he has served as both debbie and acting i. G. Of the cia. Arespector generals thee integral to community, and we believe it you will ensure your officers operate lawfully, ethically, and morally. I can assure you this committee will continue to faithfully follow its charter and conduct vigorous and realtime oversight over the intelligence community, its operations, and activities. Ask difficult questions of view, your staff, and we will expect honest, complete, and timely responses. I look forward to supporting your nomination and ensuring its consideration without delay. I want to thank you for your years of service to your country both in Law Enforcement and in our military, and i look forward to your testimony, and i now recognize the vicechairman. Senator warner thank you, mr. Chairman, and welcome, mr. Sharpley. Congratulations to your nourishing to serve as Inspector General of the cia. I believe the job of Inspector General is critical to the effect of operation of any agency. This committee relies on Inspector General of the intelligence agencies to ensure the organizations are using taxpayer dollars wisely, conducting activities within the spirit of the law, and supporting and protecting whistleblowers. Whistleblowers who report fraud, waste, and abuse. These functions are even more important in an organization like the cia which by necessity does not operate in the public. I appreciate you are the third nominee to come for this pretty this year. I wish to express my hope we will soon see from the president a nominee for the position of the i. G. For the overall intelligence committee. This position has been vacant since february, and im about theth number of changes. I appreciate our meeting earlier this month. We talked about a number of issues you will face as a cia i. G i want to ask you for some of these ask you some of these questions that we had in private. And we discussed importance of protecting whistleblowers. I went to hear about your plan of protecting all cia employees, knowing their rights and theonsibilities, as well as process of reporting waste and abuse. I would like to hear from you on this issue. Be hardhitting, to find problems, under abuses ncover abuses. I would like to hear you reaffirm that that is your role in this position. As you know, the committee completed a report on cias detention and Interrogation Program and shared it with the executive branch to ensure that such abuses are not reported in the future. Your youd how and i discussed how your office lost and found its copy of the report and how you decided to return it to the committee. We talked about the fact i disagree with your decision to return it. Today and in public we will describe how this report came to be lost and why you made the decision to return it to the committee. I want to get your reassurances you will support the investigation into russian interference in the 20 16th u. S. President ial election, something that chairman and committee and i have done good work on. Y, thank youharple for your service to our country, thank you for being here today, and thank you for having the opportunity to serve. Sharpley, willr. You promise to give this committee the full truth, so help you god . Mr. Sharpley i do. Senator burr please be seated. Chris, performing go to your statement, it is practice that i ask you five standard questions that the committee poses to each nominee who appears before us, which just are cars a simple yes or no answer. Do you agree to appear before this committee . When invited mr. Sharpley yes. Senator burr do you agree to send officials before your office when invited . Mr. Sharpley yes. Senator burr you agree to provide documents or materials requested by the committee to carry out its oversight . Mr. Sharpley yes, i do. Senator burr will you ensure your office and staff provide such materials to the committee when requested . Mr. Sharpley yes. Toator burr do you agree inform and fully briefed all members of the committee of intelligence activities and actions . Yes. Mr. Sharpley senator burr thank you. We will now proceed to your statement after which i will recognize members by seniority for fiveminute questions. Chris, the floor is yours. Mr. Sharpley thank you, chairman burr. Members of the committee, i want to thank you for a 40 me the asortunity to appear today you consider him an animation to be the Inspector General of the cia. Humbled thatand President Trump has placed his confidence in me to tackle the challenges of this important position. Risk of beinge redundant, i would like to speak to my background and experience that i believe qualify me to inspectorhe cia general. I am grateful to have the opportunity to serve our nation years, after 36 receiving a Commission UnitedStates Air Force in 1981. My training was as a special agent counterintelligence officer. Mells i acquired in repaired for challenging assignments. They also prepared me for my service for another 10 years in the air force reserves. My assignments including commander and director of security, leading teams of specialists in support of classified special access programs. I retired honorably from the air force reserves in 2002. Upon transitioning to the parttime reserves, i began my fulltime employment as a civilian special agent at the Energy Office of Inspector General. I rose through the ranks to become deputy for investigations and inspections with Program Leadership response abilities covering the Nations Nuclear weapons complex. I was privileged to have been asked by two new inspectors for Relief Program and the federal Housing Finance agency to assist them in building a brandnew office of Inspector General, focused on encountering fraud in the federal government to stabilize u. S. Banking, securities, and Financial Markets during the financial crisis. In 2010, i received a president ial award for Meritorious Service. This identified billions in front and supported successful prosecutions that often richard significant dollars to the treasury. I retired from the service as a civilian special agent Law Enforcement officer. That is when my streets and cia at caa began. I was asked by David Buckley to compete for his position. Mr. Buckley informed me that he hoped i would bring rest practices i have gleaned from other leadership roles to be applied at the cia office of Inspector General. I answered that call and entered back in the federal service in 2012 where i served as mr. Hisleys deputy until retirement in 2015 and where i have served as deputy and acting Inspector General until now. Esther chairman, i believe in cias mission to preempt threats our nation and further u. S. National security objectives. I believe the mission of the Inspector General is essential at cia. I have and continue to stand firmly behind the outstanding work of the cia office of Inspector General team of auditors, inspectors, investigators, and support staff. As acting Inspector General, i have issued over 100 classified reports and made nearly 350 regulations to leadership to strengthen programs and operations. I have further strengthened the processes within the office of Inspector General incorporating standards and best practices your life by officers across the federal community. Successfullyored to establish a reputation within cia as an independent, objective, and honest acting Inspector General, who does not hesitate to tackle heart issues, speaks truth to power, and is trusted by cia officers assigned around the world by the director and his senior team. As it has been my objective to gain the trust of this committee. If confirmed, i will continue to keep the Committee Informed of the office of Inspector General work, and i will be responsive to Committee Concerns and queries. World of ends, it shuts me the mission of the cia has never been more important than now. National Security Risks associated with north korea, iran, russia, and china require cias keen attention. As these risks increase and the threat matrix changes, cia appropriately response, and i believe independent, robust, and objective oversight becomes more vital. I have observed during my current classified highrisk small and do not receive the scrutiny that unclassified activities receive, and there is good reason for that. This was a capable Inspector General is needed, one who understands intelligence activities will independently and effectively audit evaluate and investigate inshore Mission Integrity and efficiency. Im confident the experiences and skills i have acquired throughout my career and as acting Inspector General at cia have prepared me to fulfill responsibilities as cia Inspector General. Thank you for this opportunity to testify before you and the committee. Im pleased to answer any questions you may have. Senator burr thank you for that testimony. It is my intention to move to a Committee Vote on his nomination early next week. For planning purposes, i would encourage members if they have additional questions for the record after today hearing that those be cemented by the close of business tonight. I would also remind members that we are in open session. Therefore, questions should reflect that fact. The chair would recognize himself for up to five minutes. As the cia Inspector General, you will be responsible for overseeing a Large Organization whose work us to be done in secret. s the work of the i. G office can provide that critical point o for this committee. How do you plan to continue efforts to continue to assure that all contractors and workers are aware of the cia i. G. And its function . Mr. Sharpley within cia there is an awareness program. People are required to take training on an annual basis. The procedures and processes for making a complaint to the cia Inspector General are incorporated in the training. We had a significant outreach effort that we speak with all incoming employees, new employees, and we give briefings whistleblowers whenever the opportunity arises. Beyond that, we have an extensive and very mature and whistleblower program. I have had the opportunity to build to Bank Whistleblower hotline programs the ground up come at the special and generals office, and to make improvement to two others. And very proud of the practices we have put in place that now give cia officers and those contractors with staff access to systems, the ability to make confidential, anonymous, or open complaint us at any time. The processes i put in place in sure every complaint received and concerned that is received is given a review by the senior staff of the office of Inspector General so that particular skill sets such as audit, inspections, or investigations are able to look at and issue differently with a different perspective and say whether they think that particular complaint or concern should be handled in this way or that way. Ator burr we see as the what do you see as the biggest challenge for the cia oig . Mr. Sharpley it is one of recruitment and retention. We use systems in place by the cia. They are recruiting and on boarding processes, to recruit our folks. Anre is in my opinion inefficient process of on boarding people at cia, and that is what i feel strongly about that i recently initiated a review to examine. For every person i want to bring so if i can identify an individual that meets a requirement to be an auditor for investigator, i have to give three conditional offers of employment. Two know that statistically out of the three i will lose in the time, from the time i get the conditional offer the time and forld onboard, every offer of employment, i had to conduct five interviews. So to fill 10 slots in an organization that does receive turnover because we are highly trained in the office of Inspector General. Many of the missionaries would like theerve services of my folks. I want to fill 10 slots, i have to offer 30 conditional offers of employment and in order to do 150oes, i have to do interviews. Our biggest challenge right now folhe process of onboarding and that is the most commonks, the most prominent of our challenges. Senator warner i want to follow up on the chairmans comments about protecting whistleblowers. For you again you mentioned effect of building these programs at your agencies. I would like you to talk more about what else you can do, particularly the unique nature of the cia, what you can do not hotline, but also on programs in terms of preventing retaliation. And specifically in answers to youten questions, you said would try to beef up these programs and beef up whistleblower protections. He said rather than offering specifics come, he talked about bringing in outside help to advise you. Can you tell us what kind of outside expert that would be, and take us through your commitment to the whistleblower protections, and particularly since we have seen increased amounts of retaliation and reprisals, how we can prevent them on an ongoing basis . Senatorpley thank you, whistleblowing and the programs at the offices of offices that Inspector General put in place are essential to the success of any office of Inspector General. Built,y program i have you need to build a program where there is confidence by whistleblowers are those raising concerns about a particular issue that they feel and are in fact comfortable providing information. If they are not comfortable providing information, they will not come to you, and then you cannot fulfill your mission of exploring fraud, waste, and abuse in these issues. It is critical to the success of every office of Inspector General, in particular, at cia, because of the nature of the mission. Meaning everything is compartmented and people are scaffold around the world doing mission. Ide first thing that i d to improve the program at cia is in sure that we had a robust outreach program. Senator warner, i described earlier today about what that program was about, and we talked in private. But the main thrust of that outreach is to ensure that no or ar where a cia officer cia contractor with access to our system is located around the world, that they can make a opendential, anonymous, or complaint or sharing of concerned with our office, and they are guaranteed confidentiality if they seek it. Senator warner how do you go about improving it . You said you would look to outside experts. Mr. Sharpley im comfortable with the program we have, that it is effective. But we know from the type of work we are in, which is independent assessments and evaluations of the effectiveness of the various programs around so i know even though i am comfortable with the program i have, it would be appropriate and prudent for me to invite others in. There are individuals within the i. G. Community that are known to have very solid, very large programs. Some of them are in the department of energy. This in myr to questionnaire, i asked my chief of staff to reach out to these groups, these individuals, and ask for an independent assessment of the programs i have put in place, not just our outreach programs, but our Education Program or education our ability to assess objectively and independently each complaint as it comes into a short it is handled in a timely fashion and that individuals, if they are concerned about retaliation, and we move properly as a priority to address those issues so that any potential wrongdoing or adverse personnel action against them can be prevented promptly and quickly. Senator warner i know in number of my members on the side of the aisle will ask indepth about i will allow, and them to get into the point of your reasoning for returning it. But one thing that did come up wasously was how the report lost and then refound. Will give you the opportunity t