The Transportation Security Administration has improved its management of the Transportation Workers Identification Credential in the past six months, but problems remain in ensuring effectiveness and compatibility of the TWIC cards with readers in the field, according to testimony this week by a senior executive of the Government Accountability Office.
GAO cited a lack of oversight and poor coordination with the maritime industry in its September 2006 review of the TWIC program. Since then, TSA has added program management staff, established monthly reviews and reached out to improve communications with harbor operators and shipyards, Norman Rabkin, managing director of homeland security and justice issues at GAO, told the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee.
But more difficulties are ahead as the TWIC enrollment contractor, Lockheed Martin, transitions to large-scale activities to enroll 770,000 workers. There are concerns about educating workers, maintaining a timetable for enrollment and dealing with background checks for all the workers, GAO said.
In addition, the TWIC card and reader technologies and their validation remain problematic. For example, TSA did not test biometric readers on vessels, even though they will be required on vessels in the future. Concerns still exist about how the cards and readers will perform on vessels and how the vessels will communicate remotely with TSA, GAO said.
Maritime industry representatives also are anxious about the cost of implementing and operating TWIC access control systems, linking card readers to their local access control systems and connecting to TSA’s national TWIC database to obtain updated information on cardholders, GAO said.
Overall, it won’t be possible to fully judge the effectiveness of TSA’s management of TWIC until enrollment begins, and setting realistic schedules is a key concern, GAO said. “While TSA plans to begin enrolling workers and issuing cards in the next few months, it is important that the agency establish clear and reasonable time frames for implementing TWIC,” GAO concluded.
Alice Lipowicz writes for Washington Technology, an 1105 Government Information Group publication.
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