The Trump administration has dropped a small fortune on an attempt to increase border security staff, but according to the Huffington Post , the effort has yielded extremely minimal results.
According to the news outlet, US Customs and Border Protection enlisted the outside contractor Accenture Federal Services, a subsidiary of the global Accenture consulting company headquartered in Dublin, to grow border protection staff last year, drawing up a huge $297 million contract with the company after President Trump’s crackdown on the border and immigration. So far the company has only been paid $13.6 million, which would be expected to accompany some positive results in their search for new recruits.
But apparently that expectation is a little too high, as a report released by the inspector general of the Department of Homeland Security revealed that as of October 1, Accenture had only successfully processed two accepted job offers. Not only that, but the report also indicated that the company relied more on resources from Customs and Border Protection rather than their own.
“Accenture is nowhere near satisfying it’s 7,500-person hiring goal over the next 5 years,” the alarming report stated. “Further, CBP has used significant staffing and resources to help Accenture do the job for which it was contracted.”
The report expressed concern that the company was being paid for services that they weren’t actually providing, and further concluded that there was a huge risk that millions of taxpayer dollars would be wasted on a “hastily approved contract” that is not even close to providing the results that were expected of it.
The Trump admin paid a consulting company nearly $14 million to recruit just two new Border Patrol agents, says a federal watchdog report.
CBP “risks wasting millions of taxpayer dollars on a hastily approved contract,” the report said. pic.twitter.com/y776G4CYbG
— AJ+ (@ajplus) December 11, 2018
According to the Huffington Post , officials with Customs and Border Protection have argued with the inspector general’s conclusion, citing that the company has assisted in developing a hiring process and helped begin the hiring process for “several thousand” applicants on top of their recruitment of the two new staffers. The Office of the Inspector General disagreed, however, questioning the “veracity” of the argument and noting that there were no existing records tracking the applicants.
There was also a note that the Office of the Inspector General had requested performance metrics for Accenture, but they could not be provided as they were still being developed by Customs and Border Protection.
The Office of the Inspector General offered four recommendations for the Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, including an assessment of Accenture’s contract performance that would determine whether or not the Department of Homeland Security should be reimbursed for services that have yet to be provided.
Despite some argument from Customs and Border Protection, they ultimately concurred with all four points of recommendation.
