Sunday
13 Jan 2008
Congress Investigates TSA in Conflict of Interest Case
By Annie Jacobsen in category Behind the Scenes, Airport Security & Screening
Congress has released a report detailing flaws in a TSA website so riddled with security flaws that Congressman Henry Waxman calls it "mindboggeling." The site was set up to help passengers remove their names from faulty watch lists but was so riddled with security holes, it could easily have been hacked into.
"It is mindboggling that TSA would launch a Web site with so many security vulnerabilities," Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), chairman of the committee, said in a statement.
But that's not all. During the course of the inquiry, Congressional investigators discovered that a TSA official named Nicholas Panuzio awarded $500,000 worth of no-bid contracts to Desyne Web Services in Boston. Panuzio is a former employee of the company and "still met regularly with Desyne's owner and others for drinks and dinner," according to the Congressional report. From the Washington Post:
Congressional investigators raised concerns about a conflict of interest in how the no-bid contract to create the Web site was awarded. The TSA employee who framed many of the contract's requirements and was in charge of overseeing the site was once employed by the firm that was awarded the contract — Desyne Web Services, a small firm in Boston, Va. — and socialized with members of the company, according to the report by the Democratic staff of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.
The TSA continues to use Desyne on various projects, the report said, and has awarded the company no-bid contracts worth about $500,000.
TSA officials reached by the Post called the issue "old news."