BREVARD COUNTY, Fla.,None — 9 Investigates big spending and big delays on security cards at Port Canaveral. To protect our ports, the federal government committed $420 million to work badges.
READ: Government Accountability Office Report On Transportation Worker Identification Credential
Now, more than 11,000 workers at Port Canaveral have the biometric security cards known as Transportation Worker Identification Credentials or TWIC. The badge is supposed to match employees and vendors to fingerprints embedded in their cards.
But even though many workers have TWIC cards, WFTV found secure entrances at Port Canaveral that had no equipment to scan their thumbprint. Congress ordered the cards before the Transportation Security Administration fully implemented a plan to scan them. The agency has been working on it for nine years, but still hasn't installed scanners in many ports nationwide.
"I'm not surprised one bit, said Marty Rosenlind, a former Port Canaveral taxi driver. The bureaucracy that exists here at the port is amazingly slow, encumbered."
U.S. House Transportation Committee Chairman John Mica said, so far, its a huge waste of money and a continuing threat to port security.
It's absolutely astounding, said Mica.
Without those biometric scanners, TWIC Cards are little more than very pricey ID cards. During secret government tests, investigators got access to ports with counterfeit TWIC cards and with real cards that were obtained through fraudulent means.
So that leaves our ports, our transportation systems at risk, said Mica. This is a very serious situation.
The Transportation Security Administration claims TWIC cards have prevented more than 35,000 higher risk people from unescorted port access in the past four years thanks to the pre-screening process require to get one. But it's unclear how many others may have slipped through the cracks.
The TSA and the Department of Homeland Security admit they have a lot of work to do. So far, $307 million of the $420 million appropriated has been spent, but theres still no concrete timeline for when the program will be fully functional.
WFTV
