GE - Outsourced State Department visa work criticized by House panel

From my archive of press clippings:

Government Executive

Outsourced State Department visa work criticized by House panel

By Chris Strohm

CongressDaily

June 26, 2008

The State Department came under fire in Congress Wednesday for outsourcing visa processing work in Mexico to a contractor without an open competition.

Read the whole article here.

Snippet(s):

"It created a program under which Computer Sciences Corp. has been given responsibility to collect visa information and fingerprints of Mexicans applying for new border crossing cards, which serve as an official document for Mexicans to enter the United States."

"The work by Computer Sciences Corp. is being performed under a modification to an existing contract the company has with the State Department, Tony Edson, State's deputy assistant secretary for visas, said at the hearing."

"The department estimates that more than 5.7 million cards will expire between 2008 and 2012, meaning that applications for them will surge."

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"State Department officials must be prepared to handle applications for passports or passport-like cards from U.S. citizens living in Mexico, GAO said.

By law, they will need a passport or passport card to enter the United States by land crossings beginning in June 2009."