The TSA agreed with the GAO’s recommendations to conduct reviews | REUTERS TSA misconduct accusations on rise

Accusations of wrongdoing by TSA officers spiked by 27 percent from 2010 to 2012, according to a GAO report released Tuesday that shows agency employees often received light punishments for sneaking prohibited items past scanners or napping on the job.

The report was released the day before two House Homeland Security subcommittees are due to hold a hearing on TSA employee misconduct.


“TSA touts ‘integrity’ as one of its core values,” Rep. Jeff Duncan, a South Carolina Republican who chairs Homeland Security’s oversight panel, said in a statement last week previewing the hearing. “Yet a soon-to-be released GAO report raises troubling concerns about misconduct at our nation’s airports. The report’s findings show that TSA plays fast and loose with its use of recommended penalties for misconduct.”

For example, the TSA is supposed to punish employees caught sleeping on the job with a punishment ranging from a 14-day suspension to outright firing. But the GAO found that 50 percent of cases in 2012 led to minor punishments like a letter of reprimand or a three-day suspension.

In another incident, a TSA employee allowed a family member to bypass screening before being stopped by a supervisor. The bag was found to “contain numerous prohibited items.” The employee was suspended for seven days.

The report did not specify what the prohibited items were.

The number of misconduct allegations against TSA officers went from 2,691 in fiscal 2010 to 3,408 two years later. While thefts by TSA officers have received large-type headlines, only 56 of the more than 9,000 allegations in that three-year period dealt with theft. Nearly a third dealt with unexcused absences or repeatedly showing up late to work. Another 20 percent dealt with sleeping on duty or failing to follow procedure. Sixteen percent dealt with insubordination.

Of the 9,000 cases, 47 percent resulted in a letter of reprimand and 31 percent ended with a suspension. Only 17 percent resulted in a TSA employee’s dismissal.

Mississippi Rep. Bennie Thompson, the ranking Democrat on Homeland Security, said the GAO report also showed that TSA employees were often given uneven and inconsistent treatment.

“Over a decade after being established, it is frustrating that TSA still does not have a system in place to ensure that allegations of employee misconduct are adjudicated consistently and uniformly,” Thompson said in a statement. “Given that [transportation security officers] do not have the same employment protections and due process rights that most federal employees have, it is critical that TSA review cases to ensure that policies and procedures regarding employee misconduct are being followed uniformly by managers and supervisors at different airports.”

The GAO found that an appellate board overturned initial punishments in 15 percent of the 836 cases it heard from January 2011 to June 2013, often because the charges were unproven or because the official handing down the penalty didn’t consider mitigating factors.

The TSA agreed with the GAO’s recommendations to conduct reviews of misconduct cases to make sure employees are following procedure, to develop a reconciliation process for employees who have never been accused of wrongdoing in the past and to make sure supervisors track outcomes of cases.

Officials from the GAO and TSA are scheduled to testify at Wednesday’s hearing.

The TSA said in a statement it was already working to implement the GAO’s recommendations.

“All aspects of our workforce regimen — hiring, promotion, retention, training, proactive compliance inspections, investigations and adjudications — are driven by adherence to the highest ethical standards,” the TSA said. “There is zero tolerance for misconduct in the workplace and TSA takes appropriate action when substantiated.”