RE: TPL not only aware in advance, but probably prepared in advance. If nothing else, it makes my hopeful nearer term timeline look better!"- SGE

Good point. Possibly even a diversion.

While I was on staff I went to many reviews of operations. It was common for the VP of each operation to present a list of issues. The VP would also have suggestions for fixing the issues.

I'm sure some of the issues that were presented were simply a diversion to help prevent surprise discoveries during the review. The VP didn't like to be put on the spot during a high level review. By presenting a list of issues he was able to focus our efforts on issues he could address.