Are DHS contractors running amok?
By John S. MonroeMar 05, 2010 Two heavyweights from the Senate want to know who is minding the shop at the Homeland Security Department. And whoever it is, the department’s inspector general would like to speak with them. Sens. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine) wrote to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano late last month to express concerns that the contractor workforce at DHS, estimated at 200,000, now outnumbers the federal civilian employees, which stands at 188,000, not including Coast Guard uniformed employees. “The sheer number of DHS contractors currently on board again raises the question of whether DHS itself is in charge of its programs and policies, or whether it inappropriately has ceded core decisions to contractors,” Lieberman and Collins wrote Feb. 24. On the same day, as chance would have it, DHS IG Richard Skinner released a report that questions the department’s willingness to suspend or debar poorly performing contractors. In a recent au
