WASHINGTON, May 2 (UPI) -- The Transportation Security Administration is lagging in completing performance standards for private-sector screeners, say U.S. investigators.
The delay was documented in a new report issued Monday by the Government Accountability Office.
To get its Screening Partnership Program -- which will allow airports to use private screeners in place of federal ones -- off the ground, the agency needs to develop performance minimums for private screeners in the areas of security, customer service, management and cost, the report said.
Transportation Security Administration officials have completed a draft, but the Department of Homeland Security, the agency's parent department has yet to approve it, the report said.
Without such performance criteria, it will not be possible to assign responsibility for any failures, leaving huge liability questions unanswered auditors said.
They recommended the guidelines be finished as soon as possible.
The challenge, according to an article Tuesday on GovExec.com, is figuring out how to parcel out the costs of the stringent airline security imposed since Sept. 11. The Transportation Security Administration has said the private-sector program will "operate at a cost that is competitive with equivalent federal operations."
The agency's goal is to award fixed-price contracts for screening services at small airports and to remove the burden of liability from the government. It will seek to do the same at large airports, but the financial factor grows hazy as airport size increases -- the agency said it needs two years to calculate how much screening will cost at major terminals, GovExec.com said.
