WASHINGTON: US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) needs to do a better job overseeing contractors used to perform maintenance on equipment as part of a border inspection program, a federal audit found.
The audit from the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General found that CBP has not verified that proper maintenance is being performed on screening equipment for the Non-Intrusive Inspection program, nor has it sufficiently evaluated contractors’ performance or assessed the reliability of maintenance data.
CBP spent more than $1.9 billion on the NII program between 1995 and 2014 and awarded six contracts and one inter-agency agreement valued at $90.4 million in fiscal 2014 to perform “preventive and corrective” maintenance on equipment. The equipment is used to screen cargo for weapons and other contraband without physically opening them.
“Without an independent assessment of service contractors’ performance or verification of the accuracy of submitted data, CBP has no assurance that contractors have met contractual requirements and manufacturers’ specifications,” the audit said.
The audit recommended that the Office of Information and Technology must implement a plan to monitor and review support and service contractors’ performance, and CBP said in response to a draft report it agreed with the recommendation.
