TSA has created a Screening Partnership Program through which commercial airports can apply to use private-screening contractors, but an agency study comparing the cost and performance of screening services at SPP and non-SPP airports is insufficient to base operational decisions on, GAO has said.
It called on the agency to update the study to include new cost elements and conduct statistical tests to determine the level of confidence in any observed differences in screening performance.
The study did have strengths such as recognizing that cost savings would be limited given the mandated structure of the SPP and assessing whether performance data were collected in a uniform manner, according to GAO-09-27R.
It said however that the design was limited because TSA did not include the impact of potential overlapping administrative staff on the costs of SPP airports. TSA, which generally agreed with the findings, is currently looking in to potential staffing redundancies.
According to GAO, the study fails to, for example, account for workers compensation, general liability insurance, and some retirement costs paid by the federal government, as well as the lost corporate income tax revenue from private screening contractors, when replacing private with federal screening.
It also fell short of federal accounting standards by failing to call for an assessment of the reliability of the costs and performance data, said GAO.