Former DHS IG calls on Congress to kill Hutchison Bahamas deal
The debate over assigning responsibility for scanning U.S.-bound containers for nuclear materials to a Hong Kong company with close ties to China is intensifying, with a former DHS IG calling on Congress to kill the deal
Clark Kent Ervin, who was the first DHS inspector general, told Congress yesterday that a deal which would let a Hong Kong-based company scan U.S.-bound cargo going through the Bahamas should be killed. Ervin said that the $6 million contract being awarded to Hutchison Whampoa could compromise U.S. homeland security. The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), which is in the final stages of formulating the no-bid contract to the company, says it had no choice because Hutchison was the only port terminal operator in the Bahamas. Moreover, the stipulation that the firm’s employees would operate sophisticated U.S. radiation-detection equipment without the presence of U.S. Customs agents was something on which the Bahamian government insisted.
Hutchison moved 52 million containers around the world last year.
