“Alarming Security Lapses” at Federal Buildings Contract security guards in federal buildings failed to detect guns, knives and other prohibited items in two-thirds of the undercover tests conducted by the Federal Protective Service. The Government Accountability Office, in the latest in a series of scathing reports, found that widespread problems remain in FPS’s oversight of contractors. GAO’s random review found seven of seven contractors had not met training and certification requirements for their personnel. “Instead of terminating or taking other actions against these contractors, FPS incredibly exercised its option to extend all seven contracts,” said Maine Sen. Susan Collins, ranking Republican on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Committee leaders plan to propose tougher oversight of contract guards, including increased funding to expand FPS’s supervisory workforce. The Bush administration drastically cut FPS’s personnel. The agency has about 1,200 people to oversee 15,000 contract guards. "While it has taken some steps forward in recent months, the Federal Protective Service continues to be an agency in crisis," said committee chairman Joe Lieberman, I-CT. In July GAO reported that its investigators had smuggled bomb-making components into 10 high-security federal buildings. Since then FPS has conducted 53 undercover tests on its own. In 35 of the 53 tests, guards failed to identify guns, knives and fake bombs, according to GAO’s new report. Some of the guards had not been trained to operate the x-ray machines or metal detectors at their posts. In one case, when a guard found a gun carried by an undercover agent, he had the agent stand in a corner rather than searching or handcuffing him. At an April 14 hearing of the House Homeland Security Committee, the Homeland Security Department’s former inspector general, Clark Kent Ervin, said building security should be a governmental function performed by federal employees, like the Transportation Security Administration. He acknowledged that federalizing the workforce “would not be cheap, quick, or easy.” FPS Director Gary Schenkel testified, “We have not ruled out the possibility of expanding our federal workforce," Schenkel said FPS has increased inspections of security in metropolitan areas, but relies on other agencies to perform inspections in smaller cities.