Thread: Reports Detail Massive Abuses at Homeland Security

http://www.accountingweb.com/cgi-bin/it ... 5e,%20%25Y

Reports Detail Massive Abuses at Homeland Security


AccountingWEB.com - July 31, 2006 - A congressional report released Thursday slammed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for wasting hundreds of millions of dollars in hurricane relief and national security money on frivolous purchases and mismanagement of contracts.
The report, prepared by staff of the House Committee on Government Reform, echoed an investigative report issued last week by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). It highlighted several examples involving the agencies within the massive department formed after 9/11. The Los Angeles Times and the Shreveport Times reported several of the incidents:


The Border Patrol paid $20 million for camera systems that failed to work or were never installed.

A $10-billion border security program meant to track visitors' U.S. entries and departures failed to monitor the departures and was vulnerable to unauthorized access.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) spent more than $68,000 on 2,000 sets of dog booties for canine units. The booties couldn’t be used and remain in storage.

Customs and Border Protection ordered 37 $2,500 rain jackets for agents to wear while training at an agency firing range, which, it turned out, is closed when it rains.

The Secret Service purchased 12 iPod Nanos and 42 iPod Shuffles for "training and data storage."

FEMA can't account for 12 of 20 boats its employees purchased for $208,000 per vessel.
A similar GAO investigation looked at FEMA’s purchase card program, finding that “a weak control environment and a breakdown in key controls” exposed DHS to fraud and abuse.

Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke pointed out that the agency disciplined 70 employees in the wake of the scandal, and said that "Comparatively, we're talking about a small number of bad apples."

Thursday's Shreveport Times editorial called that a “minimization,” saying that “such explanations no doubt fall on unsympathetic ears among Hurricane Katrina victims.”

In a measure of how much money has poured out of the department, the report noted that agency spending rocketed from $3.5 billion in 2003, to $10 billion two years later. Over the same period, the percentage of contracts the agency awarded without full and open competition increased from 19 percent to 55 percent, the report said.

Dear Lord - it's time to take them all out behind the woodshed. Past time!!!

This is insanity on such a colossal scale that my puny little mind can't really grasp it.

How do we stop this

Our government has to be the worst business managers there are. This is beyond words.

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercuryn ... 147775.htm

Posted on Fri, Jul. 28, 2006

Department of Homeland Security struggles to oversee spending


By Greg Gordon

McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT)

WASHINGTON - Nearly a year after it began doling out billions of dollars in contracts for recovery from Hurricane Katrina, the Department of Homeland Security still lacks a comprehensive computer system to oversee the spending, the agency's inspector general reported Friday.

Internal auditors found that the agency's chief procurement officer resorted to setting up a makeshift system to track billions of dollars in contracts, despite federal requirements that all contracting data be submitted within three days to a centralized federal system.

The stopgap system of spreadsheets, drawn from various agency divisions' contract-writing systems, resulted in unreliable information being given to the public, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and the White House, the auditors said.

In one week last January, the procurement office reported $6.8 million in purchase card transactions, when $25.9 million was actually spent, the auditors reported. They said that other contracts were misidentified, and $777 million in spending was counted twice.

The audit came out one day after a bipartisan congressional report criticized the sprawling, three-year-old agency for massive waste, abuse and mismanagement in contracts covering everything from border patrol to aviation security. The House Government Reform Committee's review of 350 watchdog reports by government auditors and investigators identified 32 agency contracts worth a combined $34.3 billion that were marred by abuse or mismanagement.

The House panel also said that, as agency contract spending spiraled from $3.5 billion in fiscal 2003 to $10 billion two years later, the percentage of contracts awarded without full competitive bidding jumped from 19 percent to 35 percent.

Disaster relief spending in the aftermath of Katrina is sure to push the contract figures higher. Through last March 31, the Department of Homeland Security had awarded 3,457 contracts worth $5.4 billion in response to the hurricane devastation in three Gulf Coast states and, especially, the city of New Orleans, the office of Inspector General Richard Skinner reported recently.

His latest audit said that, despite federal regulations requiring that all contract data be entered into the Federal Procurement Data System within three days, only two Homeland Security procurement offices were linked to the system. The Transportation Security Administration, the Bureau of Customs and Border Protection and the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center weren't hooked to the central system or even to a department-wide computerized procurement system, it said.

Department spokesman Larry Orluskie said the agency already has begun implementing most of the recommendations.

"The department's procurement system strives for data accuracy," he said.

The auditors also scolded the department's procurement office on two other counts. They said it had failed to conduct a cost-benefit analysis before choosing an agency-wide computer system to track contracting, and it failed to take adequate security measures to protect the confidentiality of computerized contracting data.

We need to force Chertoff's resignation. I'm quickly tiring of these Bush "yes" like Chertoff and the U.S. AG Gonzales! Too bad they are not accountable to the people they are suppose to be protecting.

MW:

I completely agree. The problem is that Bush will ignore us. He only wants toadys around him. Wasn't that the reason the first head of DHS "left"?

They should be spending some money on decent vehicles for the agents. Look at the lastest from Border Partol Local
2544
http://www.local2544.org/
Border Funding - Local 2544 issued a press release on July 25, 2006.

Local 2544 of the National Border Patrol Council represents approximately 2,500 frontline Border Patrol agents in Arizona, covering nearly the entire state. We are the largest Border Patrol Local in the country, and we patrol the busiest sector in the nation.

We support the efforts of Senators Kyl, R-AZ, and Cornyn, R-TX to obtain $3.7 billion in emergency funding to help secure this nation’s borders. This money would represent a huge step forward in border security, and would help us tremendously. We are currently under funded, and we are in desperate need of vehicles, equipment, and infrastructure as we attempt to stop the influx of illegal aliens, drugs, and terrorists from entering the United States. We applaud Senator Kyl for taking proactive steps to help us reach our goal of securing the borders. Reaching this goal will take manpower, equipment, and infrastructure, which all cost money. We can think of no better use for taxpayers’ hard-earned dollars at this stage in our country’s history.

We continue to be adamantly opposed to any form of “amnesty” which rewards illegal aliens for breaking our laws. Amnesty was an unmitigated disaster in 1986 and it would be a worse disaster today. 07-26-06

http://www.denverpost.com/opinion/ci_4127523

Article Launched: 08/03/2006 01:00:00 AM MDT

editorial
Homeland Security off course


Since the U.S. Department of Homeland Security was formed three years ago, it's been shown repeatedly that the agency is plagued by wasteful spending, poor planning and weak oversight.

Officials recently released the most comprehensive report to date on contract mismanagement by the agency, finding there's been an enormous price to taxpayers.

Enough already. The agency was created to strengthen the nation's safety, not enrich contractors or crooks. It's time the Bush administration moved to right the ship.

The House Committee on Government Reform said in a report that $34 billion in homeland security contracts have been subject to waste, abuse or mismanagement. The report cited, for example, a $20 million contract for cameras at the Mexican and Canadian borders that have malfunctioned or were never installed - a $10 billion border security contract to track people coming and going across the borders that is "vulnerable to unauthorized access." There were many other examples, too.

The report said the agency's reliance on no-bid deals and a lack of trained contract managers created a system prone to abuse. (The report was a compendium of 350 other reports from government auditors and investigators, some of which had not previously been released.) "Responsible procurement spending should begin with sound planning. But this has rarely occurred at DHS," the report said.

Intense congressional oversight and appropriate criminal prosecutions will both be needed in order to shut down the Homeland Security gravy train.
Just last month, we heard about fraud by agency employees and abuse of funds earmarked for Hurricane Katrina victims. Credit card spending included $7,000 for iPods and tens of thousands of dollars for training at golf and tennis resorts. After Hurricane Katrina, the Federal Emergency Management Agency spent $915 million for manufactured and modular homes but used only a fraction of them "because FEMA's own regulations prohibit the use of the homes in flood plains," the report said.

Remember the lavishly appointed Transportation Security Agency's operations center in Virginia, where $500,000 was spent on artwork and silk plants? The DHS inspector general concluded last year that the $19 million to build seven kitchens and a fitness center and add other perks involved waste and abuse.

Homeland Security, cobbled together from 22 agencies after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, is still a young entity, and agency officials have asked for patience while they make improvements. It is critical that the administration fix the department's dysfunctional contracting system and get the agency on track.

Gee now who would take a boat ??? $200 K each nice boat