Auditors to look into Federal Protective Service finances

The Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency has hired financial consultants to conduct an audit of the cash-strapped Federal Protective Service.

Senate appropriators recently rejected a Homeland Security Department request to shift $42 million to address a budget shortfall at FPS. In a July 20 letter explaining that decision, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H., said the requested shift would represent an inadequate, short-term solution to the agency's funding issues.

Gregg, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee, said any new request should include details on how FPS, which is housed within ICE, plans to fix its finances in the long term.

A source familiar with FPS' operations said Julie Myers, ICE assistant secretary, recently circulated a memorandum announcing the agency's hiring of a consultant to audit FPS. The source declined to offer further details about the memo.

"We take our fiduciary responsibilities very seriously and will tap any resources necessary to address the critical issues facing the Federal Protective Service," said Nick Smith, spokesman for ICE. "We continue to examine and reengineer the business practices of FPS to ensure [that] the appropriate internal controls are in place for the effective oversight and management of resources."

FPS provides security for federal buildings around the United States primarily through contract guards, and is an "accounts receivable" agency, meaning other agencies must reimburse it for its services. According to a management source there, FPS is nearly bankrupt.

Several sources at FPS expressed concern that the some of the agency's programs are wasteful. They complained that policies allowing workers to take home government vehicles cover too many employees, for example.

Of the FPS workers who contacted Government Executive, several said that in addition to the audit of the agency, they would support, and cooperate with, a congressional inquiry or a Government Accountability Office review.

Some said the agency is further hobbled by a loophole that allows some government agencies to refuse FPS services. The FBI, CIA, Drug Enforcement Agency, U.S. Marshals Service, Secret Service and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have all rejected FPS security in recent years, instead opting to use their own agents to protect their facilities, multiple sources confirmed.

"It's gotten worse after Sept. 11," one FPS source said. "Services offered by FPS are no longer wanted."