The Transportation Security Administration has shelved $184 million in security equipment in a Texas warehouse rather than in the airports for which it was bought.
According to a report compiled by House Republican investigators and Rep. John L. Mica (R-Fla.), chairman of the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, the TSA has wasted money on equipment that wasn’t fully tested and did not live up to expectations. The equipment is being stored in a warehouse, he said. He also has questioned the speed with which new devices are deployed to airports.
The report is consistent with his belief, saying the TSA “is wasting millions of taxpayer dollars by inefficiently deploying screen equipment.”
The report by staff investigators said the TSA was slow to supply them with an inventory of the warehoused equipment and then stalled their efforts to visit the site. The delay was a deliberate effort to get rid of 1,300 pieces of unused screening equipment before investigators arrived in February, the report said.
Despite the effort to remove the equipment, the report said, the warehouse contained 5,700 pieces of equipment, at least 100 more than the number included in the inventory TSA provided to the committee.
In providing Congress with an allegedly false warehouse inventory, the report said, the TSA may have violated the law.
