GAO says TSA slow to develop air cargo security regime

GAO says TSA slow to develop air cargo security regime The U.S. Transportation Security Administration needs to move faster to close security vulnerabilities for cargo carried on passenger and freight airlines, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office.
   Only a tiny fraction of the 23 billion pounds of air cargo transported within the United States in 2004 (6 billion pounds on passenger aircraft), was inspected by technological or physical means.
   The audit by the congressional watchdog agency recommended that:
   * TSA develop a method and schedule to complete assessments of air cargo vulnerabilities and critical assets.
   * Re-examine why certain types of cargo are exempted from random inspections due to size or other characteristics.
   * Develop performance measures to determine the adequacy of compliance by air carriers and forwarders with security rules.
   * Develop a plan to identify patterns from compliance exams, and use those results to better target companies for future exams and correct problems.
   * Ensure that data to be used in the Freight Assessment System is complete, accurate and current. The Freight Assessment System is the TSA'S effort to use risk management principles to analyze shipping data and identify high-risk cargo for inspection instead of relying on random inspections.
   Information for the security analysis will come from shipping documents and TSA’s Known Shipper database. But auditors found problems with the reliability of the information in the database and how TSA is using the information to identify shippers who may pose a risk. Specifically, the report said the database only covers about one-third of the 1.5 million known shippers, and that TSA hasn’t identified which ones pose a security threat.
   The GAO said information on previous security breaches has not been factored into TSA’s vulnerability assessment.
   Reps. Edward Markey, D-Mass, and Christopher Shays, R-Conn., requested the report, and said in a statement that the “report blows away the Bush administration’s smokescreen that paperwork checks, random inspections and other half measures keep Americans safe.”
   The lawmakers, who have proposed legislation for 100 percent inspections of cargo on passenger planes, said the Bush administration “continues to cater to the wishes of the cargo industry, while refusing to require urgently needed cargo security upgrades.”
   “Today’s GAO reports what many of us in the industry recognize — we have made many improvements to the security infrastructure of the cargo industry, but there is still work to be done,” the Airforwarders Association said, adding it “strongly supports the layered approach to cargo security endorsed by the TSA. We continue to support the identification and inspection of high-risk cargo.”
   The report, “Federal Action Needed to Strengthen Domestic Air Cargo Security” can be found at https://www.gao.gov/docsearch/repandtest.html .