Hoaxland Security

The government and its contractors are playing games with our money and our security. I don't know what the present penalty is for this kind of fraud but it should be made a capital crime. Ripping off the country while making us think we are protected is an unforgivable offense.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A $250 million program to put remote video surveillance cameras along parts of the United States' northern and southern borders was grossly and possibly criminally mismanaged, a House subcommittee heard on Thursday.

Joel Gallay, deputy inspector general of the U.S. General Services Administration, told a subcommittee of the House of Representatives committee on homeland security that the contract was never subject to open competition as required by federal regulations, was badly run, inadequately supervised and shoddily implemented.

He said his office had opened a criminal investigation with the cooperation of the FBI, but declined to give further details in public session.

The initial $2 million contract, which eventually ballooned to $257 million, was awarded in 1999 to a company called International Microwave Corp. which was later acquired by L-3 Communications Government Services Inc.

Its president, Joseph Saponaro, denied many of Galley's accusations and said the system was operational at 246 sites and the government got value for its money.

But Galley said he stood by his report.

"The remote video surveillance effort was in many respects a major project gone awry. A principal reason was the failure to follow basics: to adhere to proper procurement rules and practices; to ensure there was adequate planning, selection of an appropriate contracting approach and open competition," Galley testified.

Republicans and Democrats on the committee criticized the failure of the Department of Homeland Security to send a representative to testify at the hearing.

"We have a very glaring empty space, an empty chair, and that is the Department of Homeland Security," said Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee, a Texas Democrat.

AMERICA'S SHIELD INITIATIVE

The hearing came as the Department of Homeland Security embarks on a much more ambitious project called America's Shield Initiative to place remote video surveillance cameras, intelligent computer-aided dispatch systems; seismic, magnetic and infrared sensors and other types of equipment along the entire length of the U.S. borders with Mexico and Canada.

Department of Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said: "This particular hearing goes back to the era before the creation of the department and focused on a system we inherited which was not well managed or integrated with other systems.

"That technology is being replaced with the America's Shield Initiative and we look forward to updating Congress on the ASI in the future."

The aim of the new project is to help border patrol agents intercept illegal immigrants streaming across the border, hinder drug smugglers and protect the country against the possible incursion of terrorists.

A Senate appropriations subcommittee this week approved $51 million for the first stage of that project, which could eventually cost $2.5 billion.

The earlier system, even if it had been fully deployed, would only have covered 4 percent of the border.

Galley said that when GSA inspectors visited eight sites last summer, none were fully operational. At some, no equipment had been installed. At others, the equipment did not work.

At one site in Naco, Arizona, inspectors found parts laying on the desert floor. Other components, paid for by the government, languished in warehouses.

Galley also said that in several instances the contractor billed for sophisticated and expensive thermal imaging cameras but actually delivered cheaper, less capable systems.

Republicans and Democrats on the committee called the affair a blow to U.S. national security as well as an affront to taxpayers.

From Metro.