GovernmentExecutive.com

A House lawmaker and the head of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau on Tuesday will jointly announce changes to the handling of contract guards that oversee federal facilities.

Ernestine Fobbs, a spokeswoman for ICE, said Assistant Secretary Julie Myers will hold a press conference to announce efforts to "streamline the process of billing and make it more accurate and efficient." ICE houses the Federal Protective Service, which is responsible for security at federal facilities.

Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton, D-D.C., plans to announce and file a bill prohibiting FPS from entering into contracts with security companies owned or controlled by felons.

The announcements follow several contentious congressional hearings on contract guards, and come a week after guards in the Washington area walked out because they did not receive pay checks.

Norton's bill stems from the case of Systems Training and Research Technologies (STARTECH), a security company under contract with FPS that failed to pay its employees for as many as six weeks. During a June 21 hearing, Ann Marie Messner, former chief operating officer and general manager of STARTECH, testified that the failure to make payroll was a direct result of gross mismanagement at the hands of Weldon Waites, STARTECH's vice president for business development.

Before becoming involved in the company, Waites was convicted of conspiracy, bank fraud and money laundering and served almost five years in jail. His felon status did not come to the attention of FPS during the contracting process because while the Waites family owns 75 percent of STARTECH shares, the ownership was listed under the name of Sharon Waites, Weldon's wife.

The contract companies are not the only ones taking heat. The Homeland Security Department, of which ICE is a part, has been criticized for failing to pay the firms in a timely manner.

Payment issues reached a critical point last week when contract guards at federal facilities in the Washington area walked out because they had not been paid. Their employer, Jenkins Security, said the company was unable to pay the guards because it was owed $1.8 million by DHS.

In letter to Myers released Monday, Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., the chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, expressed extreme concern over the walkout.

"This incident lends even greater weight to the department's deputy inspector general's prediction that 'inadequate contractor oversight can result in . . . placing FPS-protected facilities, employees and facility visitors at risk,' " Thompson wrote. "Certainly if guards leave their posts, employees and visitors may be placed at risk. It begs credulity to believe otherwise."

Thompson asked ICE to provide the committee with documentation of FPS Director Gary Schenkel's claim in a May 1 hearing that the agency has a 99.7 percent completion rate on invoice payments.

Oversight of FPS contracts has been a subject of congressional focus since the announcement earlier this year of a DHS plan to cut FPS jobs and put a greater focus on contract guards.

COMMENTS

• I worked for a federal security company in Connecticut as a supervisior for several years. I can state here that the officers (including mine), had absolutely no job security. FPS created a horrible hostile working situation by threatening the contractor and staff with termination and harassment. Weak project managers, afraid of their positions being eleminated would fire an officer without due process or cause. The officers union was a joke, and did little for the line staff. Officers carry .40 auto handguns on most posts in Connecticut. With the turn over rate around 30% every few years, the situation was dangerous at times. The staff would not trust me because they knew I could not trust my management, and nobody trusts FPS!I can understand why people walked off their posts. I wont be surprised if there is violence someday as that was my chief worry. Solution? Hire, train and retain Federal Officers to guard Federal Facilities, and abolish FPS Former Security Supervisior Posted December 31, 2007 5:13 PM
• I'm not gonna sit here and put any agency down for ant matter,that's management;s job to fix it,all I know is our society has changed allot from then until now.You go to government public services and you need security there,heck I see the people that go to these places and let me tell you,these people in our society are just straight crazy and display abnormal behavior with no respect towards the workers who try to help them.Without order it will be chaos!!People tend to just dont care no more going to these services and assume there at home and can do whatever they want,I feel safe with a S/O who is armed inside a government building or facility,at least I know no idiot is gonna go in there storming in like a cowboy movie. vick Posted September 3, 2007 5:56 PM
• I am retired law enforcement officer working as a federal contract security officer since 09/11/01. I disagree with David Wright's commnents that maintaining federal police officers is the answer. I would agree the federal government has relied on private security far too long. 98% of the federal posts are currently manned by private contract security officers. Here in California I have gone weeks without seeing a federal police officer. Most contract security officers are doing an exemplary job of ACTUALLY MANNING THE POSTS! If a federal police officer would take a month vacation no one would notice. If a contract security officer left his post for one hour the building operation would shut down! My solution is to get rid of these parasitic private contractors and get these officers training, arrest powers and a living wage. This would probably never happen because their are too many hands being greased and the actual security officer and the host agencies are THE LOWEST PRIORITY! ron parvanian Posted July 19, 2007 8:48 PM