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Sunday, April 24, 2005
WASHINGTON POLITICS: Bart Jansen
Terrorists? But what about artwork?
Copyright © 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc. | ||
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Money is no object in the war on terrorism. Not even for silk flowers. Richard Skinner, the inspector general for the Department of Homeland Security, excoriated unnamed officials at the federal Transportation Security Administration for spending $500,000 on art, flowers and miscellaneous equipment in setting up their new headquarters. But top agency officials replied that their work "in an era of threatened terrorism is worth every dollar spent." The spending spree included $252,392 for artwork; $29,032 for an art consultant and her assistant; $30,085 for silk flowers; and $13,861 for lamps and miscellaneous equipment. Granted, the art was probably better than clown paintings in a dentist's office. But wait! How much would you pay for all those things AND getting the vendor to respond within 90 days? The vendor got a markup of $65,074, a promise of $26,243 in future purchases, and $83,313 in overpayments for submitting invoices before the final costs had been determined. Keep the change. "Breakdowns in management controls left the project vulnerable to waste and abuse," Skinner said in the 68-page report released Tuesday. The government has rules to discourage this sort of thing. For instance, credit card purchases are limited to $2,500. No problem! In snapping up loveseats, armoires, leather briefcases and coffee pots, buyers split 10 purchases ranging from $3,350 to $47,449 into bite-size pieces with 58 separate transactions. COZY RELATIONSHIPS Sure, the tool company that sold some stuff to the government had never dealt with this type of merchandise before. But the agency's facility operations officer had a prior business and personal relationship with the company and its owners, according to the investigative report. Weeks after quitting the government, the former operations officer started a new business with the tool company's owners that boosted his salary by about $34,000 and gave him stock shares. Nice work if you can get it. The project to establish the new headquarters for the Transportation Security Administration occurred in the summer of 2003, as the TSA was organizing safer air travel. The agency had grown quickly in 2002 from zero to 60,000 workers, including baggage screeners at all 429 airports nationwide. David Stone, assistant secretary for the TSA, said in a five-page reply that "lower level employees" who participated in improper activities either face discipline or are no longer at the agency, which is trying to recover the $83,313 overpayment. But Stone compared the project to the estimated $100 billion cost and thousands of lives lost in the destructive hijackings of Sept. 11, 2001. "Accelerating the construction of the (headquarters), and the resultant ability to communicate with Federal Security Directors across the country as well as with the Federal Aviation Administration, the Department of Transportation, and other federal agencies in an era of threatened terrorism is worth every dollar spent," Stone wrote. Stephen McHale, the TSA's former deputy administrator, called the inspector general's report "deeply flawed" and "lopsided" in his 10-page reply. He cited the urgent need for a headquarters to coordinate and sift through threats. On July 4, 2002, for instance, a guy with two pistols and a knife opened fire on passengers at Los Angeles International Airport, killing two and wounding four, 40 minutes before news reports of a plane that crashed into a holiday crowd of picnickers in Los Angeles. "Our situational awareness could only be described as poor," McHale said of communication through cell phones and laptops with dial-up modems. "It would have been an unconscionable dereliction of duty to permit that situation to continue a day longer than necessary." Enough nitpicking. Maybe these guys are so good - like those wacky doctors on "M*A*S*H" - that they deserve a few bouquets of silk flowers. But two other inspector-general reports released Tuesday suggested lingering problems with baggage screeners. Turns out the agency fired 37 baggage screeners for stealing from Jan. 1, 2003, to Sept. 30, 2004. The agency has settled or denied about half of 14,600 claims for items missing from luggage so far, paying about $763,000. Nobody keeps statistics on whether more stuff is missing nowadays as compared to before airlines hired the screeners prior to Sept. 11. But the Air Travelers Association, an industry trade group, reported that airlines think more is missing now because the feds often open up luggage to check for contraband or weapons. SCREENING THE SCREENERS The problem summed up in news accounts is that at Miami International Airport, a couple of screeners were caught with snagged compact discs, cologne and video disc players. At New Orleans Louis Armstrong International Airport, four screeners were selling and trading passenger goodies in the parking lot. And at New York's John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports, four screeners stole money, jewelry and other valuables. The unstated threat is whether anyone who could scurry away with someone's cologne could instead stuff explosives into a bag. Another inspector general's report - what little of it was released unclassified - found that better scanning equipment might be needed because of problems finding explosives hidden in luggage, despite the diligence of most screeners. But buying equipment is a money issue and that's what aggravates lawmakers upset with the agency's expensive taste for art and silk flowers. "It's very troubling to see what appear to be blatant examples of wasteful spending, particularly in such a critical agency, where we do not have any dollars to spare," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, chairwoman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee. "To see thousands of dollars wasted is particularly troubling given the legitimate needs we have to strengthen our security." Washington Correspondent Bart Jansen can be contacted at 202-488-1119 or at:
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