Audit says TSA has wasted a quarter billion dollars

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-tsa8apr08,1,5308708.sto
ry?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dnation%2Dmanual

     
------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-tsa8apr08,1,5308708.sto
ry?coll=la%2Dheadlines%2Dnation%2Dmanual

Airport Security Agency Is Accused of Waste

Audit reports suggest that $250 million may have been misspent by the
federal transportation body.
By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar and Mark Fineman
Times Staff Writers

April 8, 2003
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 country, 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 TSA 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 TSA may have wasted as much as $250 million.
Created in a climate of urgency and fear, the TSA 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 TSA's
largess has been surprising.