=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- This article was sent to you by someone who found it on SF Gate. The original article can be found on SFGate.com here: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=3D/chronicle/archive/2003/04= /09/MN98451.DTL ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Wednesday, April 9, 2003 (SF Chronicle) New transportation agency assailed for wasting money Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar, Mark Fineman, Los Angeles Times Washington -- Nestled in farm country near Thomas Jefferson's mountaintop estate, the Charlottesville, Va., airport handles about 470 departing passengers a day. When the airlines paid for security at Charlottesville-Albemarle Airport, they managed to check passengers with a staff of 15 screeners. But since the federal government took over airport security, it deploys 39, a daily average of 12 passengers per screener. Around the United States, federal air marshal field offices use government- leased sport utility vehicles. That costs taxpayers about $200,000 more per year than if the marshals switched to sedans, auditors found. But the Transportation Security Administration says SUVs are needed to reach rugged rural shooting ranges where the marshals practice. Last year's federal takeover of airport security by the transportation agency has been hailed as a success in the war on terrorism, after the new agency met what many said were impossible deadlines set by Congress. Now, audit reports and interviews with investigators and lawmakers indicate that the agency may have wasted as much as $250 million. Created in a climate of urgency and fear, the agency was given the challenge of securing 429 airports in record time. Each airport had its own vulnerabilities. Given the magnitude of the task, some funds were perhaps bound to be misspent. Yet even by that standard, the extent of the transportation agency's largesse has been surprising. From over-staffing rural airports to paying security companies at inflat= ed rates to buying more than 1,000 baggage scanners built with dated technology for $1 million each, the agency let spending get out of control, critics charge. Some in Congress cite the agency as a classic example of federal gold- plating, at a time when cities and states cannot afford to fund counterterrorism needs. "Millions, millions," have been wasted, said Rep. John L. Mica, R-Fla., chairman of the House aviation subcommittee. "We've been trying to get it under control." Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky., who heads the appropriations subcommittee responsible for the agency's budget, has blasted the agency for "budget estimates pulled from thin air" and "wild funding swings." The agency rejects charges that it allowed waste and abuse to spread. At the inspector general's urging, it has brought in two Defense Department agencies to oversee and audit a portfolio of $8.5 billion in contracts. And it announced plans to trim the screener workforce by 3,000. Spokeswoman Heather Rosenker said the agency will go after contractors that overcharged. "I think TSA has been an excellent steward of the taxpayers' money," Rosenker said. "Nobody knew the magnitude of what we were getting into." Through it all, the companies that won billions in transportation agency contracts have reaped substantial profits. InVision, based in Newark, a manufacturer of explosives scanners for baggage, reported 2002 profits of $78.3 million, 10 times higher than its 2001 net earnings. NCS Pearson Government Solutions, an international personnel and education company that won the screener-recruitment contract, reported revenues of more than $300 million from the deal. A stay at a luxury resort by recruiters working for Pearson has prompted two senators to call for an investigation. The recruiters spent five weeks at the Wyndham Peaks Resort and Golden Door Spa near Telluride, Colo., evaluating job candidates for five Colorado and New Mexico airports. Out of 283 screener candidates assessed at the resort, 50 were hired.=20 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Copyright 2003 SF Chronicle