OSI Systems [OSIS] said last Friday that it has reached a settlement with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), allowing the company to avoid disbarment from federal contracting after an investigation into modifications of automated threat recognition software used in its body scanners.
OSI said that with the signing of the Administrative Agreement its Rapiscan Systems division “can continue its current and future business with the U.S. federal government agencies.”
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| Rapiscan’s Secure 1000SP AIT System. Photo: OSI Systems |
The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has purchased body imagers, which the agency calls Advanced Imaging Technology (AIT), from L-3 Communications [LLL] and Rapiscan for deployment at aviation security checkpoints at airports across the country. More recently TSA finished removing the Rapiscan Secure 1000SP AIT systems from checkpoints because of the company’s inability to develop automated threat recognition (ATR) software for the systems that met agency specifications (Defense Daily, May 31).
Last fall the Transportation Security Administration sent a show cause letter to OSI Systems alleging that Rapiscan did not disclose issues related to the development process of the ATR software for the Secure 1000SP (Defense Daily, Nov. 16, 2012). OSI Systems said at the time that it did not falsify test data related to the software development.
At the end of May OSI Systems disclosed that Rapiscan had been notified by DHS of a Notice of Proposed Disbarment (Defense Daily, May 28). That notice temporarily prevented Rapiscan from contracting with the federal government. The DHS investigation could have resulted in a longer-term disbarment from federal contracting.
The settlement also clears the way for the company to get a potential $200 million foreign military sale with Iraq.