Reports Find Waste and Mismanagement at Intelligence Agency - Pursuit - Bryan Berky:
April 18, 2019 - "It’s been awhile since we’ve seen an Inspector General report on the National Security Agency (NSA). But we have received two in the last two months. And they show how the top-secret agency is clandestinely wasting our money.
"The first report released in March was about NSA’s travel program ... which spent $69.4 million on 43,579 travel claims in Fiscal Year 2017. The IG found ... $900,000 in questionable transactions over a 9-month period, of which $285,000 were determined to be inappropriate. These inappropriate charges include $2,392 for personal cruise line tickets, $1,568 for Walt Disney World tickets, and $1,011 spent at a yacht marina.
"The report also found that 15 employees took out a total of $200,000 in cash advances on government travel cards for which there was no corresponding government travel. One person had taken out 210 different advances totaling $37,529 in cash. The report also found 162 instances of purchases for third-party merchants (i.e. Amazon, Paypal, etc.) totaling $81,000.
"The NSA’s Government Travel Charge Card office has difficulty catching these instances of travel card abuse because they utilize a manual review system rather than an electrically matching protocol with the charge card companies that would help them identify wrong-doing. That’s right, the agency that is known for its capabilities in reviewing communications around the globe doesn’t have the technology to analyze their own travel card expenditures for abuse.
"The other report from the NSA IG found systemic problems with the agency’s ... use of award fee contracts. An award fee contract provides payment 'based upon periodic evaluations of ongoing contractor performance' which are subjective and unilateral rather than based on any targets or formula ... and necessitate a ton of oversight to ensure they are being utilized properly. The OIG found that the necessary oversight is not in place....
"Federal regulations dictate that an agency is supposed to get sign off from a contracting officer before proceeding with an award fee contract.... Of the 54 contracts that the IG looked at, 54 percent (29 of 54) did not have the proper sign-off. Regulations also require a cost-benefit analysis.... Ninety-four percent (51 of 54) lacked the required cost-benefit analysis. NSA also failed to document the justification for the fee percentage used on all 54 contracts examined....
"78 percent (42 of 54) of the contracts received 90% or more of the available award fee, and only one contractor earned less than 75%. It’s possible that the high rate of award fees being paid are worth it to the taxpayer. But NSA has no way of knowing what kind of value they are getting. The IG determined that 'despite paying hundreds of millions in award fees, the Agency has no comprehensive metrics to support whether or not its use of award fees has improved contractor performance and acquisition outcomes'....
"NSA famously has a $1 billion server farm to store huge amounts of personal data. Apparently, the only data they don’t collect are the types that could save taxpayer dollars."
Read more: https://www.ourpursuit.com/reports-find-waste-and-mismanagement-at-intelligence-agency/
'via Blog this'
April 18, 2019 - "It’s been awhile since we’ve seen an Inspector General report on the National Security Agency (NSA). But we have received two in the last two months. And they show how the top-secret agency is clandestinely wasting our money.
"The first report released in March was about NSA’s travel program ... which spent $69.4 million on 43,579 travel claims in Fiscal Year 2017. The IG found ... $900,000 in questionable transactions over a 9-month period, of which $285,000 were determined to be inappropriate. These inappropriate charges include $2,392 for personal cruise line tickets, $1,568 for Walt Disney World tickets, and $1,011 spent at a yacht marina.
"The report also found that 15 employees took out a total of $200,000 in cash advances on government travel cards for which there was no corresponding government travel. One person had taken out 210 different advances totaling $37,529 in cash. The report also found 162 instances of purchases for third-party merchants (i.e. Amazon, Paypal, etc.) totaling $81,000.
"The NSA’s Government Travel Charge Card office has difficulty catching these instances of travel card abuse because they utilize a manual review system rather than an electrically matching protocol with the charge card companies that would help them identify wrong-doing. That’s right, the agency that is known for its capabilities in reviewing communications around the globe doesn’t have the technology to analyze their own travel card expenditures for abuse.
"The other report from the NSA IG found systemic problems with the agency’s ... use of award fee contracts. An award fee contract provides payment 'based upon periodic evaluations of ongoing contractor performance' which are subjective and unilateral rather than based on any targets or formula ... and necessitate a ton of oversight to ensure they are being utilized properly. The OIG found that the necessary oversight is not in place....
"Federal regulations dictate that an agency is supposed to get sign off from a contracting officer before proceeding with an award fee contract.... Of the 54 contracts that the IG looked at, 54 percent (29 of 54) did not have the proper sign-off. Regulations also require a cost-benefit analysis.... Ninety-four percent (51 of 54) lacked the required cost-benefit analysis. NSA also failed to document the justification for the fee percentage used on all 54 contracts examined....
"78 percent (42 of 54) of the contracts received 90% or more of the available award fee, and only one contractor earned less than 75%. It’s possible that the high rate of award fees being paid are worth it to the taxpayer. But NSA has no way of knowing what kind of value they are getting. The IG determined that 'despite paying hundreds of millions in award fees, the Agency has no comprehensive metrics to support whether or not its use of award fees has improved contractor performance and acquisition outcomes'....
"NSA famously has a $1 billion server farm to store huge amounts of personal data. Apparently, the only data they don’t collect are the types that could save taxpayer dollars."
Read more: https://www.ourpursuit.com/reports-find-waste-and-mismanagement-at-intelligence-agency/
'via Blog this'
No comments:
Post a Comment