The Transportation Security Administration has held up payments to NCS Pearson, leaving a number of its subcontractors unpaid as well, while federal auditors examine the company’s performance under the contract to hire airport screeners, the Washington Post reported.

TSA spent $740 million, seven times as much as it anticipated, in its rush to meet congressionally mandated deadlines for a federal takeover of airport security last year.

NCS Pearson won the award over 25 other bidders. Its software had previously been used to process census forms and handle job applications for Wal-Mart, but the company was not a player in the field of human resources outsourcing, the editor of a trade publication told the Post.

Congressional critics have raised questions about the huge cost overrun, although TSA said it takes responsibility for some of that.

NCS Pearson’s project manager on the contract, Mac Curtis, told the newspaper, “We were very, very careful with the taxpayers’ money.”

About $1 out of every $4 in contract payments by the Defense Department went to correct mistakes in previous payments, the General Accounting Office found.

The GAO report, “Management Action Needed to Reduce Billions in Adjustments to Contract Payment Records,” documented the longstanding problems with DOD’s payment procedures. The auditors examined payments by the Defense Finance and Accounting Service in Columbus, OH, during fiscal 2002.

GAO recommended that the department standardize its payment instructions and automate those instructions in the Mechanization of Contract Administration Services (MOCAS) system. In response, DOD said it was not sure that was possible.

Sen. John Kerry (D-MA), ranking Democrat on the Senate Small Business Committee, is calling on the Bush administration to restore set-aside contracts for small disadvantaged businesses.

Kerry, a candidate for his party’s presidential nomination, said, “Time and again, this President has said he supports small businesses, yet his administration refuses to lift an outdated restriction on a program that has proven to be a significant benefit for small businesses. The Bush administration needs to live up to its rhetoric.”

The Clinton administration imposed a moratorium on SDB set-asides in 1995, after the Supreme Court’s Adarand decision placed limits on affirmative action programs. Kerry and Sen. Kit Bond (R-MO), the two senior members of the Small Business Committee, asked SBA to re-assess the moratorium last year.

SBA Administrator Hector Barreto refused, saying the set-asides were “unnecessary” because SDBs’ share of federal contracts had grown while the moratorium was in place. (SAA, 6/14/02)

In a letter to Barreto this month, Kerry wrote, “Increasing the allocation of contracts to SDBs by one-half of one percent over a six-year period, while a step in the right direction, is not enough.”

Lockheed Martin again ranked as the number one federal contractor in fiscal 2002, collecting nearly $23 billion.

Lockheed was the leading Defense Department contractor and also was at the top of the list for civilian agencies, according to a study by Eagle Eye Publishers for Government Executive magazine.

President Bush has nominated Michael Wynne to replace Edward “Pete” Aldridge as undersecretary of Defense for acquisition, technology and logistics.

Wynne, who was Aldridge’s principal deputy, has been serving as acting undersecretary since Aldridge retired in May. He is a West Point graduate and a former defense industry executive.

Women Impacting Public Policy has named Ann Sullivan of McLean, VA, to heads its new Washington office.

Sullivan is president of Madison Services Group, a government relations consultant, and has extensive lobbying experience.

The new WIPP office is at 1615 L St. NW, Suite 650. The phone number is 202-626-8562.