In waiving Trade Agreements Act requirements, the contracting officer inaccurately said there were no comparable products. Image: Magnetic Mcc/Shutterstock.com
By: FEDweek StaffAn inspector general audit has said that that IT officials at the GSA “misled a contracting officer with egregiously flawed information” in requesting the purchase of video cameras from a specified supplier and “provided misleading market research” to justify the request.
The IG report is the latest in a series harshly critical of GSA management in a variety of areas, ranging from failure to address health and safety issues in federal buildings under the agency’s control to misrepresenting the security protections of login.gov, which it offers to other agencies as a sign-in portal for the public.
The latest report recounted that IT officials specifically requested the purchase of videoconferencing cameras made by a Chinese company—which was not identified in the report—as part of an “agile” acquisition pilot project. Because of the source, it said, the contracting officer asked for justification for the needed waiver of Trade Agreements Act requirements, and was told there were no comparable products compliant with that law when in fact officials knew that there was at least one.
After the initial purchase of 70 cameras, a private security group identified five security vulnerabilities in the cameras; GSA later purchased another 82 under other contracting authorities, cameras that “were used in GSA conference rooms throughout the country.” The report said that while those vulnerabilities can be patched automatically if the cameras remain connected to the internet, many of them weren’t, requiring manual updating.
In a review last September of a total of 210 cameras not compliant with the TAA assigned to GSA email addresses, including those, auditors found 37 did not have a security update that had been issued 12 months before. After auditors made the agency aware of those findings, many of those cameras were updated. “However, a significant number of cameras registered to GSA email addresses are still not properly updated and remain susceptible to known security vulnerabilities,” the report said.
In response, the GSA agreed to strengthen controls over TAA waivers and consider taking personnel actions against the IT officials. GSA however disagreed with a recommendation to return or otherwise dispose of the cameras, saying it is confident its security protocols will address any risks; the IG in turn reaffirmed that recommendation.
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