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A major industry team has formed to provide private passenger and baggage screening services at the nation's airports.

Lockheed Martin and Covenant Aviation Security will seek contracts from the Transportation Security Administration to take over screening operations at airports. The companies said TSA plans to begin awarding contacts in May.

"The Lockheed Martin-Covenant team will bring experience-based innovation to security screening privatization and provide world-class training, human resources management, checkpoint traffic control and customer service through our partnerships with the TSA, airport management and the flying public," said John Freeh, president of Lockheed Martin Systems Management, in a statement.

Lockheed Martin has been under contract with TSA to conduct part of the agency's annual screener recertification program. Covenant has been under contract to provide private screening services at two airports.

TSA will collect proposals from private companies interested in doing screening until April 15. The agency plans to issue a list of qualified vendors by the end of May and begin making contract awards in the summer. So far, only one airport has applied to have private screeners: Elko Regional Airport in Nevada.

Congress created a federal screening workforce in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. A provision was included that would allow airports to submit applications to TSA starting Nov. 19 to have private companies manage local screening operations.

Congress also established a pilot program that allowed five airports to use private screeners. Those airports are in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Kansas City, Mo., Rochester, N.Y., San Francisco, Calif., and Tupelo, Miss. Covenant was contracted for passenger and baggage screener operations at San Francisco International Airport and Tupelo Regional Airport.

Both companies, however, have been criticized by screeners.

According to the San Francisco Chronicle, TSA is investigating allegations by one screener at San Francisco International Airport that Covenant cheated to pass tests.

According to the screener, Gene Bencomo, the company devised an elaborate system to alert security checkpoints when undercover federal auditors, called decoys, arrived at the airport last year to conduct unannounced tests. As a result, Covenant's personnel intercepted as many as 90 percent of the federal decoys in the tests, Bencomo said in a complaint.

Screeners also have complained about how Lockheed Martin has handled its part of the screener recertification program. Screeners told Government Executive last year that Lockheed Martin trainers did not understand TSA standard operating procedures and used subjective criteria to administer the tests.

TSA expressed confidence in Lockheed Martin but eventually revamped the screener recertification program.

COMMENTS

• Privatization of TSA will result in employees who cannot speak English, low class and uncaring U.S. citizens, etc. You get what you pay for and, if the government wants to hire individuals who fall asleep at the x-ray machine and don't give a damn about their jobs, so be it. Getting fired means nothing at all for an individual who is paid poorly because poor paying jobs are a dime a dozen. I'm driving if privatization. Taxpayer and Registered Voter Posted April 13, 2005 9:55 PM
• Consider this, the GAO Cites Lax Surveillance of Army Service Contracts. DoD spent $118 billion in fiscal 2003 on contractor services is expected to rely even more on them in the future, and GAO said surveillance of 26 of the 90 contracts it reviewed was insufficient. For 15 of those 26 contracts, no personnel were assigned surveillance responsibility, and the remaining 11 could not produce evidence of surveillance. According to GAO-05-274, "some surveillance personnel did not receive required training before beginning their assignments," and DoD officials said SURVEILLANCE is not a priority. This is especially the case with the Army, which does not require surveillance personnel to be assigned prior to awarding contracts, and throughout DoD, the performance of surveillance personnel is not evaluated, said GAO. It said surveillance is usually a part-time duty that is often NEGLECTED during the workday. Contracting screening to protect your family and our economy at home? Sure, if you want the oversight to be neglected, billions unaccounted, and to allow the government to scapegoat a contractor for a possible disaster in the future when public security in the skies is and will always remain the ultimate responsibility of sitting President. GovExec.com reader Posted April 8, 2005 9:26 AM
• The private sector must show a profit, if it is to take over TSA functions. What that means is that they will need to cut costs over time or increase contract revenue (charge us more money) to meet security requirements. To the American taxpayer, that translates to either more expensive travel or inferior security in our skies. I submit that neither one is acceptable today. Unfortunately the only track record the contractors have is a flashback to 9/11. Does anyone remember the economic outcomes from this incident? Airline companies going bankrupt, stocks plummeting, money hoarding based on fear? I think it is fair to say that TSA paved the way for us to get back on track. TSA was created because of the catastrophic failure of the private system, staffed by unqualified employees. How many tragedies do we have to suffer before the greedy marketing types in contracting firms let up? Do us all a favor and target another, less vital, government function for outsourcing. GovExec.com reader Posted April 6, 2005 11:36 AM