DHS Fails to Pay-Federal Employees Put at Risk

Here's a followup to a report on Private Guards not getting paid for helping secure sensitive federal locations. We first aired the report on Tuesday on Nine News Now at Six.

DC Congressional Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton and a Bush administration Official will hold a joint press conference next week to spell out some changes in how they pay the private security firms that are charged with helping protect thousands of federal workers and visitors in government buildings that are spread throughout the area and country.

We disclosed that one firm, Jenkins Security which has been in business since the mid 1990's is owed nearly two million dollars and eighty percent of its guards stayed off the job recently because Jenkins failed to make payroll for the first time. I won't say we got the runaround from four different Public Affairs people contacted at Homeland Security or its various agencies; but as of this writing all I can tell you is that Jenkins still hasn't been paid and all the Feds will say is that they have had processing problems in the Federal Protection Service sector.

I brought the Jenkins case to Norton. She has been holding hearings on Homeland Security. She promised to investigate immediately. The result appears to be coming in this Press Conference on Tuesday. Stay turned to Nine News Now and this Blog;

Meantime, I have learned of another Security firm that was actually forced out of business and into bankruptcy while awaiting payment for guard services. I'll have that story on Monday.,

Here's part of Congresswoman Norton's announcement that went out to the news media:

Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC), will hold a joint news conference with agency officials on Tuesday, July 17 at 11 AM (location TBA) to release steps the agency has agreed to take to restore public confidence in contract operations and vendor payments for contract guards charged with security for federal buildings, employees and sites. She will be joined by Homeland Security Assistant Secretary for Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Julie Myers, who has jurisdiction over FPS. ICE has released some actions it took following the failure to forward payment to Jenkins Security for guard services at several locations in the Washington metropolitan area. However, Norton and Myers will release additional important actions the agency will take regarding vendor payment and new procedures for contract officers and vendors alike.