The Transportation Security Administration used contractor personnel to perform inherently governmental tasks, including one contractor that reviewed its own invoices for accuracy, according to a Homeland Security Department inspector general audit.

Auditors found what they say is blurriness between inherently governmental and contractor responsibilities during a review of TSA's Office of Security Technology fiscal 2009 service contracts. Auditors went through 13 service contracts that collectively represented 92 percent of the office's $662 million fiscal 2009 spend on service contracts.

Although TSA stopped that contractor from reviewing its own invoices as soon as auditors brought the matter to management's attention, TSA officials said paying contractors to reviews invoices "is not inherently governmental per se, as providing an assessment does not constitute making a 'determination,'" in the agency's response to the audit.

The agency said it will nonetheless develop a policy to ensure that contractor services are not inherently governmental functions.

Auditors say the office's service contract statements of work were vague to the point that one contractor hired to provide strategic planning services ended up developing a SharePoint system for the TSA's Passenger Screening Program.

"The development of a SharePoint system is unrelated to strategic planning and is not a support service. TSA should have contracted for the system through its Office of Information Technology under a separate contract," auditors state.

One reason for the bluriness is a lack of trained acquisition staff, auditors contend. However, within the past year, OST hired four additional personnel to work on procurement issues, the report adds.

For more:
- read DHS OIG report 10-72 (.pdf)

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