TSA contractors performed government-only work, IG concludes
TSA allowed contractors to review invoices for other contractors in apparent violation of the Federal Acquisition Regulation, according to a new report from the Homeland Security Department inspector general's office.
Transportation Security Administration contractors improperly reviewed invoices for work performed by other TSA contractors, and one contractor improperly reviewed its company’s own invoices to TSA, according to a new report from the Homeland Security Department’s Office of Inspector General.
The April 15 audit evaluated 13 contracts valued at $609 million in fiscal 2009. The IG alleged in the report that TSA contractors inappropriately performed inherently governmental functions with respect to approximately $265 million worth of service contracts. The IG also found that TSA contracting officers did not follow acquisition guidance, nor did TSA maintain a sufficient number of contracting oversight employees.
“The TSA did not provide adequate management and oversight of acquisitions for support services for transportation security programs,” the report states. “Contractors were performing inherently governmental functions or roles that closely support the performance of inherently governmental functions, acquisition staff did not follow acquisition guidance, and support services contracts contained vague statements of work. This occurred because the agency did not have an adequate number of properly trained core acquisition staff to administer contracts and oversee support services contractors’ performance.”
As a result of the shortcomings, TSA cannot be certain that it is obtaining the best value for taxpayers, the audit concluded.
Under the Federal Acquisition Regulation, contract administration is considered an inherently governmental function that is to be performed only by government employees. TSA’s support services contractors performed contract administration in three of the 13 contracts reviewed.
In those cases, contractors reviewed invoices to determine whether they were reasonable, correctly charged and allowable, and then recommended the invoices for approval and payment. Those contracts totaled $265 million in value in fiscal 2009.
In addition, one of the contractors performed contract support for its own contract, along with reviewing its own invoices, the report states. “When we brought this to the attention of TSA management, they took immediate action to correct the problem,” the IG wrote.
However, TSA officials did not agree with the IG’s contention that contractors were performing inherently governmental or nearly inherently governmental work, the report states. Nonetheless, they did agree to initiate corrective actions to address the problems.