TSA fixes enrollment error

December 15, 2008

The Transportation Security Administration has fixed a Transportation Worker Identification Credential enrollment error that drew fire from the House Homeland Security Committee, the administration reported earlier this month.

In a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, committee chairman Bennie Thompson complained that “to date, the department’s implementation of the (TWIC) program has been an abysmal failure.”

He said the TWIC enrollment system did not record data for some 3,000 enrollees. Those workers will have to re-apply for their Transportation Worker Identification Credential because of a computer error by a contractor, according to the House Homeland Security Committee.

Thompson said that applications for the 3,000 enrollees were overwritten in the computer because a contractor used the enrollment software in training mode that did not record applicant data. The letter does not say where the mishap took place.

In October, two days’ worth of data in the TWIC program’s activation system were lost because of a power outage at the federal building where the computer was housed.

Thompson’s letter also said that 150 workers who had requested appeals or waivers had been denied access to ports because DHS had failed to process their paperwork.

According to Jon Allen, TSA spokesman in Atlanta, the problem occurred several months ago. When TSA became aware of the problem, it contacted the applicants involved and their re-enrollment was expedited.