In the weeks before key government tests of new radiation detection equipment, officials at the Department of Homeland Security helped contractors through repeated dry runs that enabled them to perform better during the examinations, according to government briefing documents obtained by The Washington Post.
Congress has been awaiting the test results before deciding whether to move forward on a troubled $1.2 billion counterterrorism effort to deploy the machines at ports and border crossings to screen trucks, cars and cargo carriers for nuclear devices.
The project, a leading national security initiative, has been delayed for months over concerns that department officials earlier misled Congress about the effectiveness of the devices, known as Advanced Spectroscopic Portals, or ASPs.Now the Government Accountability Office is telling lawmakers that the new test results cannot be relied on because the department's Domestic Nuclear Detection Office allowed contractors to "collect test data" about the kinds of radioactive materials they would be screening and then to "adjust their systems accordingly" for the actual tests in February and March, according to confidential briefing documents prepared by the GAO.
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