i 14 The Honorable Claude Pepper

i 14 The Honorable Claude Pepper

Q- House of Representatives

Dear Mr. Pepper:

As requested in your letter

of October 2, 1972, we examined the

) Federal Av,iat,jon Adminjstration's

(FAA'S) August and September 1972 -?p?

procurement of w,ea,pon detectors

fo~~~~.t~,~~~~~,~c~~~~.~

a~tih.l,j~cki~~,g..~~o~~~,a~~"~'he'consi'd~ration

FAA gave to purchasing detectors

from

Infinetics,

Inc. Before the Government procured these detectors,

$?0?2/4

several airlines

had purchased detection.equipment

from Infinetics,

Inc., to be used under a voluntary

FAA-sponsored passenger screening

program.

J!

In May 1972 the Department of Transportation

requested that the

Conqress appropriate

funds for FAA to acquire and furnish weapon detectors to airlines

because such action was needed to expedite acquisition

and use of detectors

at airports.

At that time FAA decided

that the detectors

would have to detect both ferrous and nonferrous

metals. According to FAA, this decision resulted from a Department

of the Treasury weapons expert's

estimate that at least 15 percent

of the hand guns in public use contained mostly nonferrous

metal

and from recent technology

applications

that made it possible to

detect nonferrous

metal weapons. The Department of the Treasury

expert advised us that he based the percentage of nonferrous

hand

guns on his observations

of confiscated

weapons.

During 1971 and 1972 the Department of Transportation

and FAA

evaluated

the performance of major handheld and walkthrough

weapon

detector

systems.

In July 1972 FAA established

a performance

goal

which provided

that detectors

should identify

at least 85 percent

of passengers carrying

weapons with less than a 15-percent

false

alarm rate for passengers not carrying weapons.

During July and

August 1972, FAA-tested walkthrough

weapon detectors

produced by

several manufacturers

against this performance goal with the

following

results.

B-105965

Manufacturer

Test dates

A

July

17 to 19, 1972

Detection

rate

(percent)

False alarm

rate

(percent)

91

1:::

F

Infinetics,

Ii

F

Inc.

July 17 to 19, 1972

August 12 to 14, 1972

August 23

18, to1972

25, 1972

August 28 to 30, 1972

:z

80.2

85.2

71.5

94.2

3': 7

62:7

26.3

12.5

Infinetics,

Inc., weapon detectors were the only detectors

included in

these tests that did not react to nonferrous

metals.

FAA officials

advised us that handheld detectors were not tested in July and August

1972 because earlier

testing

revealed that there were sufficient

metaldetecting

handheld devices,on

the market which could meet FAA's detection

performance

goal.

ACQUISITION OF WEAPONDETECTORS

On August 1, 1972, the FAA Administrator

declared that the threat

of air piracy was an emergency situation

requiring

immediate action and

issued a regulation

that required

airlines

to screen and search air passengers fitting

certain characteristics

promulgated by FAA, either through

the use of metal detectors

or throu.gh personal searches when metal detectors were unavailable.

On the same day the Secretary of Transportation

directed

the FAA Administrator

to purchase the best available

weapon detectors so that they could be used as soon as possible.

The Secretary

advised the Administrator

that (1) weapon detectors

already evaluated

and

found satisfactory

by the airlines

should be purchased, (2) further

tests

and evaluations,

could not be justified,

and (3) improvements could be

made later.

Between August 14 and September 12, 1972, FAA awarded $2.7 million

in contracts without formal advertising

for 1,200 handheld and 1,091 walkFAA justified

this procurement approach under

through weapon detectors.

the Federal Property and Administrative

Services Act of 1949 (41 U.S.C.

252(c)(2)),

which provides that an agency head may negotiate

contracts

without advertising

if the public exigency will not permit the delay incident to advertising.

3

/

The Department of Transportation

and Related Agencies Appropriations

Act, 1973 (Public Law 92-398), approved on August 22, 1972, provided

$3.5

million

for FAA to purchase weapon detectors.

Procurements made before

that--250

handheld and 107 walkthrough

detectors

for about $465,000--were

charged to FAA's 1973 operating

fund accounts under continuing

resolution

authority.

-2-

24

B-105965

An FAA official

advised us that (1) about $800,000 of the appropriated

funds were withheld

from commitment to allow for possible production availability

of additional

weapon detectors,for

acquisition

of

newly developed detectors

for test purposes, and for coverage of damaged shipments and (2) the remaining $2.7 million

was applied to purchase walkthrough

detectors

to cover critical

gates at major airports

and handheld detectors

to cover the remaining gates at these airports

and gates at other airports

used by the airlines.

According to FAA,

the quantities.purchased

were based on an assessment of the capabilities

of each nonferrous

metal detector manufacturer

to produce and deliver

acceptable equipment in the shortest

time.

FAA purchased units from each of the manufacturers

whose detectors

it evaluated

during July and August 1972, except Infinetics, Inc., and

manufacturer

E. FAA officials

said that Infinetics,

Inc., products

could not detect nonferrous

metals at the time the procurement was made

and were disqualified

under the performance

criteria

established

in May

1972. FAA did not purchase manufacturer

E's detector

because FAA determined that the manufacturer's

production

capability

was inadequate at

the time of the procurement.

FAA's July and August 1972 tests of walkthrough

detectors

disclosed

that manufacturers

C and D could not meet FAA's false alarm rate goals

and that C's product detection

rate was considerably

below the 85-percent

performance

goal.

FAA stated that it justified

awarding contracts

to C

and D because of (1) the overriding

requirement

to install

as many detectors with ferrous and nonferrous

metal detection

capability

as fast as

possible and (2) the ability

of the manufacturers

to meet production

and

delivery

schedules.

Also, we were told that FAA assumed a substantial

number of existing

or planned airline

orders for these detectors.

ACTIONS FOLLOWING PROCUREMENT

FAA plans to equip all passenger boarding areas at major airports

with walkthrough

detectors.

To accomplish this objectqve,

FAA recently

requested and received approval

from,the

House and Senate Appropriations

Committees to expend an additional

$2.5 million

for weapon detectors

from fiscal year 1973 funds appropriated

for other FAA operating

activities.

Also, FAA asked airlines

to furnish

FAA with estimates of additional walkthrough

detector

requirements.

Following

the August procurement,

FAA has continued to test walkthrough weapon detectors

that did not meet the FAA detection

and false

alarm goals in the July and August 1972 tests.

Both manufacturer

C and

Infinetics

have modified

their walkthrough

detectors

and have met FAA

FAA expects.to

retest manufacturer

D

performance

goals in recent tests,

against FAA performance

goals soon.

-3-

b

t

.

r.

c

B-105965

In January 1973 FAA contracted to purchase 150 walkthrough

detectors

from Infinetics,

Inc., although these detectors still could

not detect nonferrous

metals.

FAA officials

said that the Infinetics

detector

had been modified to enable detection

of ferrous elements of

predominately

nonferrous

weapons, thereby satisfying

FAA's established

performance

goals.

;.

We did not provide the Department with an opportunity

to formally

review and comment on this report;

however, a responsible

FAA official

concurred with the factual

information

presented.

We find no legal basis to object to FAA's funding or procurement

practices

in this case. We trust this information

will serve ywr

purposes.

As agreed with your office,

we are sending a copy of the report

today to the Chairman of the Special Subcommittee on Investigation,

House Committee on Interstate

and Foreign Commerce. We do not plan to -Pan+?*/

‘2/ distribute

this report further

unless you agree or publicly

announce its

contents.

Comptroller

Genera1

of the United States

-4-