Auditors to scrutinize Federal Protective Service

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That's right, everybody's favorite (or not) federal cops are going under the beancounters' microscope.

http://www.upi.com/SecurityTerrorism/Senators_ask_for_audit_of_FPS/20070226-063507-7728r/

Senators are calling for an audit of the Federal Protective Service, a police force in the Homeland Security Department that guards U.S. government buildings.

"We are concerned about (the service's) continued funding shortfalls," wrote the leaders of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee to the Government Accountability Office last week.

The request follows on the heels of cuts to the service in President Bush's recent budget proposal and a reorganization plan that labor unions say would be "the last nail in the coffin" of the agency, whose functions have been progressively outsourced to private contractors.

Less than 1,500 police officers work for the service, which also manages 15,000 private security guards working under contract with federal agencies.

The letter says there are concerns about the system under which the service is reimbursed by other agencies; the logic of placing the service inside Homeland Security; and its capacity to manage the security contracts it oversees.

The letter was signed by Sens. Joseph Lieberman, I-Conn., chairman of the committee; Susan Collins, R-Maine, the ranking member; and Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, chairman of its subcommittee on the federal workforce; and George Voinovich, R-Ohio, the ranking member of that subcommittee.