Role of Homeland Security Contractors Is Questioned The Department of Homeland Security’s heavy reliance on contractors raises the question of “who is in charge,” said Sen. Joseph Lieberman, I-CT, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. The Government Accountability Office found that DHS spent one-third of its $15.7 billion procurement budget in 2006 on professional and management support services. Many of the contractors worked alongside federal employees, and in some cases supervised other contractors, in such areas as acquisition and hiring of personnel. “Much of DHS service contracting comes very close to, and in some cases crosses the line of, ‘inherently governmental functions,’” said the committee’s ranking Republican, Susan Collins of Maine. At an Oct. 17 hearing, several senators said the department may have been forced to rely heavily on contractors in the early years after it was created in 2003. “We’re not at the beginning any more,” said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-MO. But DHS spent more money on contracting in 2007 than in 2006, according to the chief procurement officer, Elaine Duke. She said the department is studying the issue of “Is it too much?” Steven Schooner, co-director of the Government Procurement Law Program at George Washington University, described DHS as a “hollow agency,” lacking the personnel and expertise to manage itself. “In the short run…I honestly don’t think we have a choice” but to rely on contractors, he told the committee. “The GAO report expresses the profound concerns that there is inadequate oversight of contractors,” Sen. Lieberman said. GAO auditors found that contractors’ central role in supporting inherently governmental functions poses “the risk that government decisions may be influenced by, rather than independent from, contractor judgments.” GAO also questioned the department’s heavy use of sole source contracts. Duke said only 50% of contract dollars were awarded competitively in 2006, but that improved to 65% in 2007.