DHS urged to approve standards for private airport screeners
Lack of performance criteria shields contractors from legal ramifications of negligence, GAO says.
The Transportation Security Administration has not completed performance standards for its private screeners, the Government Accountability Office said in a report issued Monday.
Only after the agency establishes criteria by which the Homeland Security Department can judge screeners will it be possible to hold individual airports responsible for negligence by a contractor, GAO said. The Homeland Security Department shares some of the burden for not having completed the criteria, the report (GAO-06-166) stated.
As part of its Screening Partnership Program, which allows airports to apply to use private screeners in place of federal ones, TSA developed performance goals for private screeners in the areas of security, customer service, management and cost. But DHS still must approve the draft, GAO said.
GAO called on DHS and TSA to work together to finalize the goals. DHS generally agreed with that recommendation.
The challenge is figuring out the cost of the stringent airline security necessitated by heightened domestic security levels. TSA has said the program will "operate at a cost that is competitive with equivalent federal operations."
TSA's goal is to award fixed-price contracts for screening services at small airports and to remove the burden of liability from the government. It will seek to do the same at large airports, but the financial factor grows hazy as airport size increases - the agency said it needs two years to calculate how much screening will cost at major terminals.