A Radioactive Contract
Two years ago, the government awarded a contract to San Diego-based Science Applications International Corp. to manufacture cargo-screening monitors that detect radioactive material. The government bought and installed about 400 of the scanners at many of the nation's border crossings and ports. Cost: $220 million.
The machines were plagued by performance problems, government officials say, and government scientists are now testing different technologies that will be needed to upgrade or replace them. The cost of that "upgrade," according to various estimates, will run into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
Turnoff. What's the problem? Well, for starters, the monitors can't distinguish between a nuclear bomb and radiation that occurs naturally in a variety of materials, including ceramic tiles, quarry tile, cat litter, fertilizer, and bananas, according to the congressional Government Accountability Office and officials of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (an agency of the Department of Homeland Security), which purchased the equipment. As a result, the detectors reportedly go off frequently. Some Border Patrol officials turn the machine's sensitivity monitors down to avoid "nuisance" alarms, which risks letting dangerous material through.
Customs officials and SAIC both agree that the monitors cannot distinguish between certain types of radiation, but they say the machines represented the best available technology at the time. Critics say the cargo scanners are one example of several expensive and hasty purchasing decisions made by the federal government in the wake of 9/11. "After 9/11 there was a lot of pressure to go with well-known contractors, but that is no excuse for not adequately testing first to make sure equipment works well in the intended environment," says former DHS Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin, who now directs the homeland security initiative at the Aspen Institute.
Ties? SAIC's competitors complain that the government's bid documents for the scanners were tilted in SAIC's favor. Such complaints are not unusual, but published reports have indicated that customs documents prepared for a related project actually included SAIC's brand name. Several former senior customs executives have joined SAIC over the past several years, and SAIC has won a host of contracts from Homeland Security. Customs and SAIC adamantly dispute assertions that the request for bids was written with SAIC's monitor specifically in mind. The monitors, says Jared Adams, a spokesperson for SAIC, were procured "after a full and open competition, which SAIC won."
The GAO is now investigating the government's radiation screening program, its cost, and reported equipment problems. It is expected to complete its investigation by the end of the year, at the earliest.
This story appears in the May 30, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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