WP: Government Can't Explain Increase in 2002 TSA Contract (+$343 million)

[Pirate Smile]

Government Can't Explain Increase in 2002 TSA Contract
Homeland Security Office Says It Lacks Documentation on $343 Million Change

By Scott Higham and Robert O'Harrow Jr.
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, October 9, 2005; Page A16

In the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the government changed a contract to hire federal airline passengers screeners in a way that cost taxpayers an additional $343 million. More than three years later, officials cannot explain exactly why.

Homeland security officials say they have no memos, e-mails or other paperwork to document the reason for the change, as required by federal contracting regulations. They have also offered accounts of the decision that conflict with internal government documents obtained by The Washington Post.

The modification to the contract involved switching the interview sites for tens of thousands of airline passenger screener jobs from a contractor's own assessment centers to hotels and luxury resorts.

The change added hundreds of millions of dollars to a contract that increased from $104 million to $741 million in nine months. Federal auditors later called into question $303 million of that spending.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/08/AR2005100801271.html

[texpatriot2004]

1. They got some splainin to do here, a $343 Million dollar change

and NO documentation? I find that highly unlikely. Someone is lying again.

[Pirate Smile]

7. There is an investigation - by DHS's inspector general.

"The contract is now the subject of an investigation by the homeland security department's inspector general."

[guruoo]

13. And OJ's still lookin for the killers

[Pirate Smile]

20. Right, and Mike Brown is helping review what went with wrong with FEMA

after Katrina - let me guess, it was all Nagin and Blanco's fault. FEMA was brilliant.:eyes:

[enlightenment]

27. It's a wonder there are any chickens left in the

government hen-house . . .

[indepat]

23. This ploy is systemic, the tip if the iceberg in the rape of the Treasury

[shanti]

34. yes, and it doesn't matter

how they do it. they are very blatant about it too. most americans (du'ers excluded - we KNOW) are going to be shocked at the extent of it when *ush leaves office, err....when the repukes leave office.

[Old and In the Way]

2. Anyone check the RNC ledgers?

Unbelievable.....

[struggle4progress]

12. Ledgers? Ledgers? Do you want the one page summary spreadsheets?

[IthinkThereforeIAM]

21. Yeah...

... something like that.

[MADem]

3. And there ain't even

a hundred percent coverage on the aircraft. It is a catch as catch can scenario.

Don't assume that if Terry the Terrorist stands up and starts making trouble on your flight, that Bruce Willis is gonna hop to it and save the day. He might not even be on your plane....

Where did the goddamn money go???? Someone does indeed got some splainin to do!!!

ON EDIT--I am reccing this for the GREATEST PAGE, and would ask any other readers to do the same. This is yet another CULTURE OF CORRUPTION issue, and with the shit going on with the NYC subways, we need to beat the drum about this crap. The sons of bitches WASTE OUR TAXPAYER MONEY AND DO NOT KEEP US SAFE, EITHER!

[NVMojo]

4. well, let me tell you about the TSA and our tiny airport in Elko, Nevada

there are 34 TSA employees at our tiny airport and the city only can afford 8 employees to run the entired airport/terminal/tower, etc ...it's a disgusting waste of funds ...

[Bernardo de La Paz]

5. Good catch. Also 8 billion cash missing in Iraq in 2003.

[leftchick]

16. I believe it is 9 BILLION now

but who is counting and who cares? :argh:

[Bernardo de La Paz]

19. If they keep going like that, pretty soon they'll be talkin' real money.

[leftchick]

24. that is the amount found to be disappeared so far

It is more likely far worse than they have admitted to.

[0007]

35. Yeah, who cares? Tis all funny money now anyway.....

:hi:

[TacticalPeek]

6. Republicans cannot be trusted with taxpayer money.

They leave the bill for their glutonny to the grandkids.

By March 29, 2002, the decision had been made to start using hotels. Within months, the program would include some of the nation's finest. Among them: the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan; the Hawk's Cay Resort in Duck Key, Fla.; the Wyndham Peaks Resort and Golden Door Spa in Telluride, Colo.

[dchill]

10. Not their grandkids - they'll inherit...

the purloined billions with NO ESTATE TAX!

[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Joe Chi Minh]

29. You mean, Monopoly money, don't you?

[Journeyman]

8. That settles it. I'm gonna do my best to get a Federal contract. . .

It seems to be a license to steal.

[randomelement]

9. What - you think shadow governments come cheap?

Damn - give these guys a break. All that expensive teak wood in those underground digs have got to be paid for somehow.....

And don't forget the steak and lobster tail dinners - we only want the best for our elite, don't we?

[fasttense]

14. I'm surprised this made it into the news.

The repuke cover up machine must be busy elsewhere.

Your hard earned tax dollars lining the repukes pockets. The culture of corruption continues.

[Guaranteed]

15. OH, gee, only 50 fucking percent of a change being called into question

because it's being spent ON MOTHERFUCKING HOTELS????

WHAT THE FUCK KIND OF BULLSHIT GOVERNMENT IS THIS???????????????

[lanlady]

17. here's the WP's earlier reporting on it

from June 05:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/29/AR2005062903063.html

"The audit turned up a Pearson program-management review dated March 29, 2002, attributing the decision to TSA official Pamela E. Pearson (she has no family ties to NCS Pearson). The reason for the change: "For the purpose of efficiency," according to the Pearson review document.

When auditors asked for documentation from the TSA about the decision, the agency's legal office responded that "there was no written documentation" for the change and that the hotels and other locations were chosen by Pearson.

Pamela Pearson is now the vice president and general manager of Covenant Aviation Security LLC, a company that works with the TSA to provide private passenger screeners at airports. She denied that TSA officials directed Pearson officials to use the air marshal model and to move the work to hotels.

"We didn't specify it had to be hotels," Pamela Pearson said. "We did not dictate the method. . . . At no point in time did I direct them to use the model. I left it up to them."

Pamela Pearson said the idea of using the air marshal model emerged from her discussions with colleagues at the TSA and with Michael P. Jackson, then deputy transportation secretary and now second-in-command of the Department of Homeland Security."

Wanna bet Ms Pearson is some sort of Bush Pioneer contributor?

[goforit]

18. No checks and balances...no accontability!! We are being robbed blind

[mod mom]

22. Cronyism and the culture of corruption of the Republican Party. nt

[Kralizec]

25. Just another example of how these people will *steal* as much from

the American Public as possible. These people are sick and despicable.

[mbperrin]

26. Pearson also runs the student testing in Texas.

I believe you'll find Carlyle at the bottom of the Pearson heap.

Surprised?

[TexasLawyer]

28. What's a few hundred million dollars

between FRIENDS?

[AirAmFan]

30. What did the hotel chains provide in return, and to whom?

All that extra government business would have been very tempting to negotiate in advance. And kickbacks could have included accomodations for those who provided other services to Republicans. And, of course, kickbacks would have included the usual policial "contributions" to the RNC and other GOP bagmen.

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

31. 300 million here, a billion there... Pretty soon you're talking about real

money! :shrug:

[Inland]

32. Well, it's a typo.

It was supposed to be $434 million unexplained increase.

[AuntiBush]

33. Nothing? I mean NADA on $343 Million Dollars in the Wake of 9/11?

How much longer will Americans continue to allow these abuses?