The Department of Homeland Security just released a scathing report (embedded below) of corruption and waste in President Trump’s beloved border security plans right before the President threatened to “proudly shut down the government” if Democrats don’t give him any more money.
DHS Inspector General representative John V. Kelly (of no relation to the fired Chief of Staff Gen. Kelly) released a 19-page report ominously titled, “CBP Needs to Address Serious Performance Issues on the Accenture Hiring Contract” which contained a stunning revelation.
US Customs and Border Patrol officers have paid the private firm Accenture over $14 million to create a hiring program which has only resulted in two job offers over a 10 month period.
The DHS report doesn’t even specify if those two job offers were accepted, according to the HuffPost:
U.S. Customs and Border Protection granted Accenture Federal Services — a subsidiary of the global Accenture consulting company headquartered in the tax haven of Dublin — a $297 million contract last year to boost staffing by thousands in the wake of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on the border and immigration.
The company is “nowhere near satisfying its 7,500-person hiring goal over the next 5 years,” declared the report…
President Trump has publicly flirted with unceremoniously firing DHS Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, a close ally of outgoing Gen. John Kelly, whose greatest claim to fame in eighteen months of service is to concoct, lie and cover up for creating and enforcing a heinous family separation policy at the border.
Now, Nielsen will have to also deal with a newly energized House Oversight Committee led by Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), because of this declaration in the Inspector General report:
Consistent with our responsibility under the Inspector General Act, we will provide copies of our alert to congressional committees with oversight and appropriation responsibility over the Department of Homeland Security.
In fact, under Rep. Cummings’ leadership, Democrats have already been planning to grill the head of DHS for her inhumane border policies since June.
But today’s stunning revelation of border security waste right in the middle of the GOP’s last big budget fight to throw money at overpriced consultants could torpedo the best-laid plans of Republican Party’s triple majority in Congress and the White House, dooming their last few days to a gloomy defeat.
Trump’s own DHS just proved that throwing money at America’s border is no solution to the problem of this country needing a comprehensive immigration reform bill.
Original reporting by Mary Papenfuss at HuffPost.
Read the entire DHS report here: