The Transportation Security Administration could do more to strengthen the oversight of its explosive detection system maintenance contracts with Boeing, the Government Accountability
Office has said.
TSA obligated almost $470 million from fiscal years 2002 through 2005 for explosive trace detection equipment and explosive detection systems maintenance, according to TSA budget documents — but GAO said the agency was unable to provide it with data on the maintenance cost per machine before fiscal 2005 because contracts with Boeing at that time did not capture such data.
Further, a DHS inspector general report in 2004 found that TSA did not follow sound contracting practices in administering the
contract with Boeing, and TSA paid provisional award fees totaling $44 million through December 2003 without any evaluation of Boeing’s performance, according to GAO-06-795.
It said that TSA plans to spend $199 million on maintenance in fiscal 2006 and about $234 million in fiscal 2007.