Federal Newscast

CBP’s $5 million in unnecessary polygraph exams

In today's Federal Newscast, a Homeland Security Department Inspector General report said Customs and Border Protection was conducting lie detector tests on job...

Eric White@FEDERALNEWSCAST

August 14, 2017 8:08 am

3 min read

With Customs and Border Protection looking to hire 5,000 new Border Patrol agents, there’s one of the hiring process it could fix. A new inspector general report found CBP conducted $5 million in unneeded polygraph exams after applicants gave disqualifying information in previous interviews. The IG said CBP has implemented its recommendations to improve the process. (Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General)

Two former executives with defense contractor Glenn Defense Marine Asia are sentenced as part of the now infamous “Fat Leonard” bribery scheme. Former GDMA chief deputies Neil Peterson and Linda Raja both received 70 and 46 months in prison, respectively, after admitting to inflating Navy contracts and defrauding the government out of nearly $35 million. (Department of Justice)

The Justice Department has ordered one of the largest settlements related to small business contracting eligibility. Defense contractor ADS Incorporated agreed to pay $16 million for its role in bid-rigging and improperly receiving contracts set aside for small businesses. DoJ found that several small companies controlled by ADS falsely claimed to be service-disabled and economically disadvantaged businesses. (Department of Justice)

A small Defense Department office has raised its table stakes in the search for new technologies with high payoffs. The Defense Innovation Unit Experimental, known as DIUx, reported awarding $71 million in contracts through the end of June. That represents 37 pilot projects in several domains including autonomy, artificial intelligence, and space. In its latest quarterly report, DIUX said officials expect some pilot project to proceed to production, so they survive the so-called valley of death between development and deployment. (Defense Innovation Unit Experimental)

Veterans Affairs legislation heads to President Donald Trump’s desk for his signature. One bill modernizes the appeals process at Veterans Affairs. Another grants lifelong use of the GI Bill instead of just 15 years. The third one provides $2.1 billion to fund the Choice Program for an additional six months. (House Veterans Affairs Committee)

A new strategy for the war in Afghanistan. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) has proposed a civil-military strategy to “turn the tide” of the Afghan war. McCain’s plan includes increasing the number of American soldiers stationed in Afghanistan, and added battalion training for Afghan security forces in their fight against terrorism. McCain filed his plan as an amendment to the fiscal 2018 National Defense Authorization Act. (Sen. John McCain)

The IRS’ efforts to move the cloud gets low marks from its IG. The IRS’ decision to move a public-facing system to the cloud comes under scrutiny from auditors. The Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration found the agency fell short of several mandates as it moved its Form 990 to the cloud over a 20-month period. TIGTA said IRS didn’t appoint an authorizing official, failed to generate an agency Authority to Operate letter and it didn’t incorporate service level agreements within the cloud service provider. TIGTA also said the IRS doesn’t have an enterprise-wide cloud strategy to govern its efforts. (Department of Treasury)

The Social Security Administration plans to move its anti-fraud and oversight components all under one roof by October. SSA Acting Commissioner Nancy Berryhill said it’s moving six offices under the new Office of Analytics, Review, and Oversight. Berryhill has tapped Pat Jonas to serve as the new office’s deputy secretary and Amy Thompson as its acting assistant deputy secretary. This consolidation comes a few months after SSA announced it would open its early retirement incentives to most of its eligible employees. (Federal News Radio)

Collaboration and conservation are at the heart of this year’s Energy Exchange hosted by the Energy Department’s Federal Energy Management Program. FEMP Acting Director Leslie Nicholls tells Federal News Radio the workforce training and networking event will focus on resiliency and security portfolio planning. The Exchange starts Aug. 15. (Federal News Radio)