Now I read through the report, and there was no mention of EODT using armed guards to protect the building of these sites, so that was not the ‘inherently governmental’ portion they were talking about. They were talking about the contractors doing the job of upper level management of CBP, which to me is a no-brainer–no duh that is inherently governmental. It’s also inherently lazy on the part of the CBP to not draft their own reports for congress to read.
The other part of this thing was the mention that COTR’s assigned to monitor the 136 contractors (as of Nov 2008) were not able to properly keep tabs on them. Come on, are you guys serious? Maybe if the COTR actually got off their ass and did their job and personally inspected the work in the field, as opposed to giving some lame excuse that there wasn’t enough of them to manage this, then maybe they would have been able to keep things in line. How many COTRs are needed to screw in a lightbulb?
Now if there were thousands of contractors that a handful of COTR’s had to oversee, then I might see a complaint there. Interesting report, and I guess I shouldn’t be complaining too much. The government is actually trying to do the right thing in this case, and focus on quality control. But maybe instead of hiring more COTR’s, they should focus on what the COTR does to see if there are deficiencies in that process first. Who provides the quality control on COTR’s? –Matt
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IG: SBInet has too many contractors
SBInet’s heavy reliance on contractors increases the risk of losing control of the program
By Matthew Weigel
Jul 10, 2009
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency hasn’t kept contractors far enough away from inherently governmental work on its border protection program because the agency relies too heavily on them, according to a new report.
Contractors comprise more than 50 percent of the workforce on the agency’s Secure Border Initiative, mainly because of the Homeland Security Department’s aggressive program schedule and shortages of government program managers and acquisition specialists, the department’s inspector general said in a report released July 9.
“As a result, contractors are performing functions that should be performed by government workers,” the IG wrote. The CBP also failed to clearly define the roles that were appropriate for contractors and those that government employees must perform.
In response to the IG, CBP officials said no support services contractor performed any inherently governmental function.
Despite the abundance of contractors, the IG said the agency doesn’t have enough contracting officer’s technical representatives (COTRs). They have first-hand oversight of contractors’ work and update the contracting officers on progress and any problems.
The CBP’s heavy reliance on contractors increases the risk of losing control of the SBInet program’s management, the IG said. SBInet is a comprehensive, departmentwide program to secure the U.S. borders. It’s an electronic surveillance system comprised of cameras,radars, ground sensors and communications equipment that transmit information to border patrol agents at operations centers.
The IG noted steps the CBP has taken to hire federal employees, but it specifically recommends hiring more COTRs to oversee contractors’ work. It also recommends allowing only government employees to conduct inherently governmental functions.
CBP officials said the agency has the SBInet acquisition and program offices working together on contractor oversight. It has also held training workshops for COTRs.
Story here