Resort Stay Lands 'Em In The Hot Tub

The TSA, on its web site, touts its relationship with NCS Pearson as "a partnership that worked." It appears to have worked too well in the case of about 20 recruiters, who, on the taxpayers' tab, spent seven weeks at a mountain resort in Colorado, as well as the Hawaiian hotel named by Conde Naste as the best stay in the country.

So, how do you get to be a TSA recruiter?

That question seems to plague members of Congress, and, to a lesser extent, the TSA itself. While the TSA hails companies like NCS Pearson as a virtual godsend in the chaotic days after 9/11, at least two senators suggest NCS Pearson was an opportunistic operation out to make fast bucks by taking advantage of widespread security concerns.

Federal documents show the company’s recruiters lived at a pair of lavish Colorado resorts and other plush vacation spots – including Hawk’s Cay Resort on Duck Key (FL), more than 50 miles from Key West International Airport – while sticking taxpayers with the bill. Total price tag (found so far): up to $9 million. While the audit of NCS Pearson should take at least another month, the TSA is withholding $90 million in contract payments to the company. 

"This is worthy of an aggressive criminal investigation," Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) said last week, and he hopes "to hold someone accountable. I’m upset with the company, but I’m also upset with the government," the senator said. "This is gross negligence."

FMI: www.ncspearson.com, www.tsa.gov