Huge Waste in the Department of Homeland Security

It has been confirmed that billions of dollars have been wasted by the Department of Homeland Security over the last couple of years doe to a 739% increase in no-bid contracts handed out by the government.

Just like many of the sweetheart deals handed out to the politically connected in Iraq, no-bid contracts end up costing the taxpayers billions in waste and fraud. As we know, the president rewards his friends, and they are cashing in big time now.

Unlike FDR who made it a policy to deter war profiteering, Bush has done nothing to indicate that war profiteering is not a noble cause.

Homeland Security Contracts Abused
By Griff Witte and Spencer S. Hsu
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, July 27, 2006; Page A01

The multibillion-dollar surge in federal contracting to bolster the nation's domestic defenses in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has been marred by extensive waste and misspent funds, according to a new bipartisan congressional report.

Lawmakers say that since the Homeland Security Department's formation in 2003, an explosion of no-bid deals and a critical shortage of trained government contract managers have created a system prone to abuse. Based on a comprehensive survey of hundreds of government audits, 32 Homeland Security Department contracts worth a total of $34 billion have "experienced significant overcharges, wasteful spending, or mismanagement," according to the report, which is slated for release today and was obtained in advance by The Washington Post.

The value of contracts awarded without full competition increased 739 percent from 2003 to 2005, to $5.5 billion, more than half the $10 billion awarded by the department that year. By comparison, the agency awarded a total of $3.5 billion in contracts in 2003, the year it was created.

Among the contracts that went awry were deals for hiring airport screeners, inspecting airport luggage, detecting radiation at the nation's ports, securing the borders and housing Hurricane Katrina evacuees. Investigators looking into those contracts turned up whole security systems that needed to be scrapped, contractor bills for luxury hotel rooms and Homeland Security officials who bought personal items with government credit cards.

(Full Story)