News briefs

The Transportation Security Administrationdidn't fully justify the lack of competition for$469 million in single-source contracts itawarded in fiscal 2006, said Richard Skinner,the Homeland Security Department'sInspector General.Only one of TSA's 16 noncompetitive contracts? for a $225,000 optical device ? metall requirements, the IG report states. Singlesourcecontracts accounted for 31 percent ofTSA's $1.5 billion in procurements.CACI International Inc. has denied what itcalls the malicious and unfounded allegationsthat the company was involved in the torture offour former Iraqi prisoners at the Abu Ghraibprison. Suits charging CACI, a CACI subsidiary,an L-3 Communications Corp. subsidiaryand three employees of the contractorswith violations of U.S. law ? including torture,war crimes and civil conspiracy ? were filed infederal court June 30.President Bush issued an executive order June30 establishing a council charged with settinggovernmentwide standards for checking backgroundsof government employees and contractors.The Suitability and Security ClearancePerformance Accountability Council will reviewprocedures for investigating and ruling onwhether a person should be allowed access tosensitive information or federally controlledbuildings.Boeing Co. has received more than $1 billion? more than was previously disclosed ? forwork on the Secure Border Initiative alongthe Mexican border in Arizona, aGovernment Accountability Office reportstates. From September 2006 to January2008, Customs and Border Protectionawarded Boeing $1.15 billion through eighttask orders for SBI and the SBInet fence andsurveillance system, GAO said.The chairman of the House HomelandSecurity Committee wants HomelandSecurity Department officials to ensure contractorsdo their job before the governmentpays them bonuses.Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) introduceda bill requiring DHS to pay a bonusunder a cost-plus-award-fee contract onlyafter the company meets the outcomes specifiedin the contract.Contractors looking for work in the tight fiscalenvironment of state and local governmentneed to focus on projects that will producesavings that can be redirected to priorityareas, a new Input Inc. study states. The stateand local government IT market will growfrom $48.4 billion in 2008 to $64.9 billion in2013, with professional services and outsourcingfueling nearly half of the $16.5 billion ingrowth in the next five years, Input said.Unisys Corp. has been dropped from theselection list for Phase 2 of the TransportationSecurity Administration's $1 billion infrastructuremodernization contract.Unisys had been lead contractor on theInformation Technology InfrastructureProgram's predecessor, IT Managed Services.Bills would up cybersecurity fundsCompeting House and Senate Appropriationscommittee measures call for as much as$319 million for Homeland SecurityDepartment cybersecurity efforts.The House calls for $299 million and theSenate $319 million for fiscal 2009. TheBush administration had requested$294 million. The enacted budget for cybersecurityin fiscal 2008 was $210 million.U.S., Britain forge traveler pactThe U.K. and the U.S. governments havesigned an agreement to develop a trustedtravelerinitiative allowing prescreened passengersto receive expedited processing whenarriving at airports in the other country.The International Expedited TravelerInitiative between the United Kingdom andUnited States was signed June 24.The new program is expected to bealigned with the Homeland SecurityDepartment's recently established GlobalEntry Program, an international registeredtravelerprogram.The Coast Guard has improved oversight ofits $24 billion Deepwater asset acquisitionprogram but is still struggling to hire enoughin-house experts for the job, a GovernmentAccountability Office report states.The Coast Guard took over the lead systemsintegrator role for Deepwater a year agobut continues relying on contractor advicefor crucial information such as cost estimates,and it's having difficulty reducing the20 percent vacancy rate in its acquisitionoffice, GAO said.