As TSW's health/environmental expert, this green lifestyle blogger/organic gardener has investigated health and environment issues. Her paranormal encounters further fuel her search for truth. SallyPainter has 16 post(s) at Top Secret Writers
In 2012, the Committee on Oversight & Government Reform published its findings about the TSA (Transportation Security Administration). Not only were the findings shocking, they set off alarms throughout the government and the Nation. The Committee’s May 9, 2012 report titled Airport Insecurity: TSA’s Failure to Cost-Effectively Procure, Deploy and Warehouse Its Screening Technologies gave a startling insight to the corruption and negligence of the agency assigned the duty of securing the nation’s airports.The committee reported that the TSA has wasted hundreds of millions of taxpayers’ dollars in equipment that has been sitting in warehouses unused. As much as 85% of the equipment had been in storage for longer than six months with 35% longer than one year. “One piece of equipment had been in storage more than six years – 60% of its useful life”. (1)
The committee accused TSA of “inefficiently deploying screening equipment and technology to commercial airports”.
Even as late as February 15, 2012, the TSA was still storing “approximately 5,700 pieces of security equipment in warehouses at TSA’s Transportation Logistics Center (TLC) in Dallas, Texas”.
The Committee reported that this stockpile of equipment was valued at $184 million, yet “when questioned by Committee staff, TSA’s warehouse staff and procurement officials were unable to provide the total value of equipment in storage”. In addition to this cost, the “annual costs for leasing and managing the TLC (Transportation Logistics Center) are more than $3.5 million”. (1)
Some of that stored equipment was “472 Advanced Technology 2 (AT2) carry-on baggage screening machines”. 99% of this equipment had been stored longer than nine months and 34% had been in storage more than one year.
Not only was the equipment not being used in airports as designated, it was depreciating in value and resulted in a cost of $23 million taxpayer dollars. Failure to direct ship equipment from the manufacturer created an “excessive annual deployment costs of between $50 million and $100 million”.
TSA Uncooperative with Congressional Oversight Committee
Careless spending was also cited for the TSA purchase of Explosive Trace Detectors (ETDs) in order to buy at a bulk rate, although there was no need for the devices, only an “incorrect and baseless assumption that demand would increase”. The total cost of the ETD purchase was $44 million. 492 ETDs have been stored for over a year. The TSA was unable to provide the committee with a ETD deployment plan.The TSA delayed the Congressional Oversight Committee and “provided inaccurate, incomplete, and potentially misleading information to Congress in order to conceal the agency’s continued mismanagement of warehouse operations”. (1)
–> TSA willfully delayed Congressional oversight of the agency’s Transportation Logistics Center twice in a failed attempt to hide the disposal of approximately 1,300 pieces of screening equipment from its warehouses in Dallas, Texas prior to the arrival of Congressional staff.
–> TSA potentially violated 18 U.S.C. Sec. 1001 by knowingly providing an inaccurate warehouse inventory report to Congressional staff that accounted for the disposal of equipment that was still in storage at the TLC during a site visit by Congressional staff.
–> TSA provided Congressional staff with a list of disposed equipment that falsely identified disposal dates and directly contradicted the inventory of equipment in the Quarterly Warehouse Inventory Report provided to Committee staff on February 13, 2012.
–> “TSA staff and warehouse management were unable to provide the exact quantities and locations for equipment in storage.”
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