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U.S. Sen. Jom Webb (D-VA) says Monday holding those accountable for wartime contracting waste, fraud, and abuse is as important as fixing systemic problems with the federal government’s contracting procedures.

Testifying at the inaugural hearing of the Commission on Wartime Contracting, which Webb successfully created with Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO) through legislation they introduced in 2007, the lawmakers pressed the panel’s commissioners to aggressively use all available resources to deliver on this goal.

Monday’s session was the first of several hearings to be conducted as the CWC carries out its statutory mandate. The bipartisan, independent commission is charged with addressing the systemic problems associated with the federal government’s greatly expanded reliance on wartime-support, reconstruction, and private security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Every interested American knows that there was waste, fraud and abuse following the invasion of Iraq,” says Webb. “They want us to demonstrate that we’re going to do something about it, not simply in terms of process, but also in terms of accountability. There is a very urgent need to restore public trust in the process by holding those responsible accountable.”

Webb underscored the important role of the commission, urging the commissioners to “be aggressive” in satisfying their mandate and to speak up if they required additional resources and time to conduct their work.

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