The SBI Net contract -”virtual fence”- LOOK who will handle the money!

Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff announced Thursday, the implementation of a high tech, high priced deal with Boeing for "virtual border security". What will be interesting about this is if David Norquist, recently appointed by Pres. Bush to handle the finances at homeland security does as bad a job as he did with handling the more than questionable spending on Haliburton with the Defense Dept. Norquist is the brother of Grover Norquist, the White House policy maker for immigration/amnesty/open borders and founder of the Islamic Institute.

May 27, 2006 - The Senate also confirmed David L. Norquist as Homeland Security’s chief financial officer, and former Secret Service director Ralph Basham as commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Several Senators including Joe Lieberman challenged documented missteps and questionable spending of billions in defense contracts handled by Norquist.

DHS Nominee for CFO Grilled About Role in Hiding Alleged Overcharges by Halliburton

Department of Homeland Security chief financial officer nominee David Norquist faced more questions at his confirmation hearing about Halliburton subsidiary KBR than about his plans to handle the department’s complex financial management system.

Senators on the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee on Monday focused on Norquist’s role at the Department of Defense in allowing prime Iraq contractor Halliburton subsidiary KBR to conceal alleged overcharges in an investigation by a United Nations oversight board.

As the deputy undersecretary of defense and comptroller, Norquist was asked by the panel about more than 450 redactions in documents drafted by the Defense Contract Audit Agency. That agency found more than $177 million in overcharges, according to committee ranking member Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, D-Conn.

DOD provided the documents to the U.N. oversight board, claiming the redactions were necessary to protect proprietary information for KBR.

It is “very troubling that a contractor implicated in an overcharging scandal would be given the final say on what information to provide to the U.N. oversight board,” Lieberman said.

“This episode is relevant to today’s hearing because DHS needs a CFO who puts taxpayers first, who is committed to sound financial management and transparency and who is willing to confront agencies that may be shirking their legal responsibilities.”

From Chertoff's press release, he states,

"Now, what is SBI Net? Well, SBI Net, first of all, is a partnership -- a partnership with Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, which will be the prime contractor and the integrator for our technology effort at the southern border and at the northern border. What we are looking to build is a virtual fence, a 21st century virtual fence

The SBI Net contract is an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity type of contract with a performance period of three years, and three one-year option periods. What that means in plain English is we're not buying the entire contract at once. We have the overall framework. We have the partner. We have the general terms of the contract. But we will be rolling out segments of this, starting in the highest priority, highest traffic areas.

One of the critical requirements that we laid down in this process of procurement was the government always had to have control of the driver's seat. We have a partner here. We look forward to working with the partner. But the control of the process lies with the government, and that means at every step of the way, as we roll out additional segments of the border under this contract, we will have the opportunity to negotiate the best price. We'll have the opportunity to look for alternatives, if we think there are cheaper or better alternatives that have become available. And we will be driving the process using the operators as the principal decision-makers here at every step of the way.

More current news on Norquist:

Group: Abramoff-implicated Norquist visited White House 155 times

The Secret Service revealed yesterday, as a result of a suit brought on by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), that Grover Norquist, former associate of Jack Abramoff, had been cleared to visit the White House 97 times in the five-year period leading up to the scandal, including 6 meetings with President Bush himself. Records relating to the case indicate that Norquist, through the group Americans for Tax Reform, channeled money between Abramoff clients and grassroots campaigns, skimming hundreds of thousands of dollars off the top in the process. CREW insists that during settlement discussions with the Secret Service, it was revealed that records destroyed by the Secret Service--but still retained by the White House--show that Norquist visited the White House a minimum of 155 times.

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Wednesday, July 26, 2006

Cronyism, Pandering, Incompetency. What a legacy!

The President nominates David L. Norquist, brother of Grover Norquist to Chief Financial Officer at the Department of Homeland Security.
http://towncriernews.blogspot.com/2006/07/cronyism-pandering-incompetency-what.html