Homeland Conference Circuit
Hits Hawaii
ABC News
By BRIAN ROSS and RHONDA SCHWARTZ
Dec. 17, 2004
Dec. 17, 2004 - At the same time agents of the budget-strapped
Department of Homeland Security worried about being able to
afford gas for government cars, top department officials,
including outgoing DHS Secretary Tom Ridge, could be found
basking in the warm Hawaiian sun for a meeting they said was
essential government business.
While officials reported a continuing freeze on hiring new
agents and a halt to non-essential spending in chilly Washington,
D.C., buffet lines, lavish luaus and a short walk to the beach
awaited top officials at a sumptuous resort and spa on Waikiki
Beach in Honolulu, on the island of Oahu.
It was the setting for the second annual Asia-Pacific Homeland
Security Summit and Exposition, with most of the cost paid for by
corporations seeking government contracts. The rest of the travel
expenses for the officials were picked up by the American
taxpayers.
On the first day of the conference, ABC News cameras caught
Ridge, along with several aides, relaxing by one of the five
pools at the Honolulu resort. It was listed as "office time" on
his official schedule.
Chuck Lewis, executive director of Center for Public
Integrity, a government watchdog group, said homeland security
has turned into a vast, wasteful pork barrel.
"Look at the opportunities lost. What else could the officials
have been doing during that conference and during those days
wasted?" he asked. "We have terrorists crashing embassy gates and
these guys are sitting by the pool."
During the day, there were speeches seminars, mostly well
attended, although the headline speakers offered very little that
was new.
The Homeland Conference Circuit
The cost of the summit itself was estimated at $250,000, which
major corporations helped pay for by becoming official
sponsors.
"We're a platinum sponsor," a Ch2m Hill employee at the
conference said. "And we'll definitely be a platinum sponsor next
year. This is a great opportunity for us."
Many of the companies attending the conference were seeking a
piece of the $11 billion the United States is now spending each
year in the war on terror.
An employee of Security Resources, another company attending
the summit, said the company's business had tripled since Sept.
11.
And other participants of the summit said it was just one of
the dozens of conferences held in the last few months, part of a
major element of the homeland security industry, where corporate
officials seeking contracts and government officials awarding
contracts have developed what some see as far too cozy
relationships.
Face Time With Ridge
"And it's not just the place and the setting, it's the face
time. Having face time with Secretary Ridge if you're a company
is very, very important " Lewis said. "So of course you'd like to
be a co-sponsor of the event or something like that. And be in
the receiving line or get your shrimp when you're next to
Tom."
To get to and from Hawaii, Ridge traveled in a Coast Guard
executive jet, the cost of which his press aides said they did
not know.
When asked by "20/20" as he left the conference, Ridge said in
a news conference that he thought the trip was time and money
well spent.
"I think it's a modest investment when you have the
opportunity to not only talk with in terms of giving a speech,
interact with question and answer period," he said. "And then
have more private sessions with leaders of up to 40 different
countries to deal with the war on terror."
But the foreign officials ABC News spoke with said they were
not aware of any private sessions.
"Not at all," the Laotian ambassador, His Excellency Phanthong
Phommahaxay, said it was a long breakfast, roughly lasting for
one hour.
Ironically, the 10 highest-ranking Asian officials Ridge met
with all came to Hawaii from Washington, D.C., themselves, where
they work in their countries' embassies.
In fact, Ridge could have driven a few blocks down the street
in Washington to meet them.
Clark Ervin, the inspector general of DHS until two days after
our interview, said what ABC News found in Hawaii raised serious
questions about homeland security priorities.
"It doesn't look good, clearly," Ervin said. "It seems to me
the priority of this department ought to be spending every dollar
on its core mission, and of course the core of that mission is
counter-terrorism. And so every dollar that's spent on something
that does not relate directly to the mission of the department is
a dollar that's wasted."
Over the last year, Ervin has issued a series of startling
reports on how tens of millions of dollars have gone unaccounted
for at homeland security, including a Transportation Security
Administration awards ceremony with bloated expenses of close to
$500,000 -- $1,850 was spent for seven sheet cakes. $85,000 was
paid to an event planner.
Lewis said there was a clear ethical line being crossed. "I
don't begrudge anyone having a good time," he said. "When it's on
the public's nickel and it's during the day and it's involving a
life-and-death subject like homeland security, I'm offended by
it."
Danielle Brian, executive director of the Project on
Government Oversight, said she was simply disappointed.
"This agency in some ways, I think more than any, was created
with such a sense of urgency, that we needed a real focus on
making us safer at home," she said. "And when you see this it
just, it really, it makes your heart sink. It's taking advantage
of us."
ABC News' Maddy Sauer, Simon Surowicz and Jessica Wang
contributed to this report.
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