Safety and Security: Company Faces Impediments Identifying and Managing Private Security Contractors

Our initial objective was to assess the effectiveness of the company’s oversight and coordination of its private security contractors, but we reported our observations now to inform the company’s efforts to consolidate private security contractors under a nationwide contract. In June 2020 we reported that the Amtrak Police Department (APD) did not have full visibility over private security contractors because various end-user departments can independently seek agreements for their services. During our most recent audit work, we observed that the company continues to face impediments identifying the totality of its private security workforce. For example, we identified an additional 17 private security contractors (companies or individuals) that APD and the Procurement department were unaware of. Two factors impact the company’s efforts: 1) it has neither a companywide contract repository nor an alternative process to identify these contractors, and 2) it has not determined which department or individual, if any, should be responsible for evaluating and approving the requests of end‐user departments for private security services. We provided these observations for the company’s consideration. The company agreed with our observations and is taking corrective action.