Nukes and Budgets

Questions about the Department of Homeland Security's troubled efforts to protect against the import of nuclear weapons continue to bubble. And now it's congressional appropriators who are taking up the issue again.

At issue is the department's Domestic Nuclear Detection Office. Government Inc. readers know that DNDO has been embroiled in persistent questions about its management of a $1.2 billion effort to buy a new kind of radiation detection machines known as Advance Spectroscopic Portal radiation monitor.

That effort is stalled even though President Bush and homeland security chief Michael Chertoff have said that protecting against the importation of materials for a nuclear weapons or dirty bombs is a top national security priority.

The appropriators questioned why the DNDO is not fully staffed.

"The Committees on Appropriation are concerned with the Domestic Nuclear Detection Office's (DNDO) shortfall in critical staffing positions and the impact of this shortfall upon the agency's administrative functions," lawmakers said in their conference report on the FY 2008 appropriations for Department of Homeland Security.

"As a result, there have been significant delays in obtaining quality budgetary information on major acquisitions and research projects from the agency," the appropriators said.

The appropriators also promised to withhold millions of dollars in funding unless the DNDO and the rest of DHS cooperate more closely with the Government Accountability Office, which for more than a year has been trying to determine whether homeland security claims about the new machines are valid.

The GAO has already turned up evidence that DNDO exaggerated the effectiveness of the machines, leading to the delays in the effort to buy them. No one knows exactly what they'll find when the DNDO turns over all the records and test results that GAO auditors have requested.

Homeland security officials have said they're working hard to develop the machines and ensure they're worth the expenses, while also cooperating with the GAO.

By Robert O'Harrow |  December 20, 2007; 2:00 PM ET homeland security
Previous: Surprise, Surprise | Next: Contracts, Campaigns and Money

The comments to this entry are closed.