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Delays in TWIC Assistance Draw Sharp Criticism |
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by Mickey McCarter
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Friday, 30 May 2008 |
Long wait times at TWIC help desk and for card issuance spark concern at Congress, TSA and ports
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) must hold its contractor for biometric access cards at US ports responsible for delays in reducing excessive wait times for the program's help desk hotline, Homeland Security Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) demanded in a letter Thursday, reflecting concerns from some port security personnel that the overall program may not be effective.
Thompson laid the blame for the delays, which have stretched to an average of about 21 minutes of wait time per call, on Lockheed Martin Transportation and Security Systems (LMTSS), the prime contractor for the Transportation Worker Identification Credential (TWIC).
"Transportation workers around the country have called my office to complain about the help desk," Thompson wrote. "The help desk was supposed to provide assistance to the 1.2 million transportation workers who are required to [obtain] a TWIC. Instead, the help desk has proven to be yet another poorly designed and managed program that is negatively impacting those individuals who comprise the valuable eyes and ears of our nation's transportation system."
In his letter, Thompson asked Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff to respond by June 2 with steps his department has undertook to resolve the problem and with actions against contractor Lockheed Martin for failing to meet TWIC requirements.
Thompson published letters from TSA contracting officer Mary Hallam to Lockheed Martin, detailing TSA's communications to the contractor on its failure to meet a required maximum help desk wait time of only 3 minutes under the TWIC program.
The TWIC program management office has determined that problems with TWIC card activation and with software configuration for the card management system have contributed to a significant increase in help desk call volume, Hallam wrote on March 12.
On March 20, Hallam informed Lockheed Martin that it has failed to improve help desk response time, with wait times stretching to 16 minutes under a February performance review of the help desk center. The review estimated that transportation workers abandoned 70 percent of help desk calls after waiting 8 minutes.
On May 8, Hallam reported that a March quality review had found the average wait time for help desk calls had grown to nearly 21 minutes.
"Further, Lockheed Martin's card management system has a limited card activation capacity, which has resulted in thousands of cards sitting unissued," Hallam wrote, later adding, "LMTSS continues to underestimate the level of support required to provide acceptable help desk services."
The May 8 letter instructed Lockheed Martin to implement improvements in five days.
Previous responses from Lockheed Martin blamed card status check delays for an increase in help desk volume. The contractor further blamed the status checks problems on fingerprint rejections, a card printing backlog, and poor communications regarding card availability. TSA contended in response that its February performance review found that status checks delays accounted for less than 3 percent of total call volume.
Skeptics at the Ports
Thompson's letter reflects skepticism within the port security community that the transportation worker credentials will work as advertised.
TSA has scheduled the Port of Los Angeles to receive TWIC in September, Ronald Boyd, chief of the Los Angeles Port Police, told HSToday.us, but he suspects delays in issuing the cards may push that date back.
"We are waiting for the transportation worker community to get engaged and to enroll. There are folks who are stopping by the enrollment centers. Once the databases are populated, we will be one of the test centers that have readers up at the terminals at LA and Long Beach," Boyd remarked.
The TWIC program has not served to unite transportation workers with a common platform for addressing security concerns due to its delays and variance in management of the program from port to port, Boyd observed.
"The federal government told each port to go out and manage the program as they see fit, so there are some disparities in the management of TWIC," Body commented. "So while it could have been a great unifying element, I don't think the system is necessarily defined around that. It is going to be an access control component within the port security infrastructure. But it's still very much in its development stages. I can't say that I have confidence in it as a unifying effort."
TSA extended the TWIC compliance date to April 15, 2009, in an announcement on May 2. The agency reports about 270,000 workers have been enrolled and about 90,000 of those have obtained their cards as of mid-May. As of the same time, Lockheed Martin has introduced enrollment stations to 105 of 147 US locations.
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Mickey McCarter |
| About the author: |
| eNewsletter Editor/Senior Washington Correspondent,
is a journalist with more than a decade of experience in reporting
on
military affairs and information technology.
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