(The below information was originally gossip from a business associate, but has since been verified from official sources, to be disclosed through the course of the post.)
A lot of people spend a lot of time griping about the Transportation Security Administration, complaining about their relatively idiotic proceedures and requirements, pointing out how de-humanizing their practices are at the security gate, wondering where our rights went in this grand scheme of “feeling safe”, and questioning whether or not all of the money spent on them is actually worth it. I honestly confess that I am one of those people.
And I can honestly tell you that some of the money spent on the TSA is not only not worth it, but also probably willfully wasted.
For a while, the TSA experimented with a program called “Registered Traveler” (RT), wherein willing guinea pigs paid some money, had some background checks done on them by the TSA, and then were issued a special smartcard credential that allowed them to use streamlined security lanes for shorter waiting and inspection periods. For frequent fliers, the time saved would probably more than offset the cost, though they still had to undergo the standard x-ray of baggage and metal detection of their persons (just in a shorter line).
Great idea, right? Except the background checks were apparently never performed.
You read that right. Fred Fischer, a managing partner of FLO Corporation (one of the enterprises that took part in the RT program) testified exactly that to the House Committee on Homeland Security on 30SEP09:
To my knowledge, not a single RT applicant was ever vetted using a criminal history records check, even though for the first two years of the program, applicants were charged $28 per enrollment by the TSA for such background checks.
But twenty-eight bucks is nothing, right? Multiply that by somewhere around 250,000 travelers – seven million dollars were taken in by the Transportation Security Administration, with no apparent product or service tendered. Where did the money go? What was it spent on? How was it budgeted and allocated?
Even worse, how many of those quarter-of-a-million travellers would have been flagged in and/or banned from the Registered Traveller program if their background checks had actually been executed?
And people still wonder why the TSA is such a frequent target of ridicule, disgust, inquiries, and insults? Some people just do not pay attention… And some do not want to.
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