GAO Report: TSA Needs Outcome-Oriented Performance Measures to Diversify its Marketplace

A recent report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has not been able to come up with outcome-oriented measures to gauge their success when it comes to bringing small businesses into the market of security infrastructure. 

Every day, TSA screens millions of passengers using a number of different technologies such as bomb-sniffing dogs and explosive detection systems. In an effort to welcome more small businesses into the realm of security technology, TSA developed 12 initiatives that would promote innovation and diversify the market through the 2018 TSA Modernization Act.

Small businesses told GAO that they still struggle to enter TSA's marketplace and have difficulty navigating testing and evaluation processes and identifying security requirements. Additionally, the report states that TSA has not collected data on small businesses' progress across its acquisition phases, such as capturing the overall time, costs, and ability to meet security requirements. While TSA has tried to address these concerns through planned initiatives, small businesses still have no way to track their progress without outcome-oriented performance measures, such as baseline goals or target timeframes.

Through small business participation, the security technology market can be diversified and TSA can further its mission to combat terrorism.

GAO issued two recommendations for TSA in the report. First, TSA must develop outcome-oriented performance measures. Second, they must collect data, where they can, on small businesses' progress across TSA's acquisition phases.

While GAO noted ways TSA can expand its small business contracts, the agency has celebrated considerable progress expanding small business contracts in the last 19 years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. TSA Administrator David Pekoske explained in a press release in November, “TSA obligated $576 million for various types of U.S.-based small businesses to deliver necessary equipment to all of TSA’s federalized airports nationwide. Our partnership with small businesses was critical in helping us quickly secure personal protective equipment, including acrylic barriers, to protect the TSA workforce and airline travelers against the spread of COVID-19.”