FPS is responsible for protecting federal employees and visitors in approximately 9,600 federal facilities under the custody and control of GSA. The level of security FPS provides at each of the facilities (including whether guards are deployed) varies depending on the building’s facility security level. To fund its operations, FPS charges fees for its security services to federal tenant agencies in GSA-controlled facilities. For fiscal year 2013, FPS expects to receive $1.3 billion in fees. FPS has about 1,200 full-time employees and about 13,500 contract security guards deployed at approximately 5,650 (generally level III and IV facilities) of GSA’s 9,600 facilities. Figure 1 shows the location of FPS’s 11 regions and the approximate number of guards serving under contracts in each of these regions. FPS’s contract guard program is the most visible component of the agency’s operations, and the agency relies on its guards to be its “eyes and ears” while performing their duties. Contract guards are responsible for controlling access to facilities; conducting screening at access points to prevent the introduction of prohibited items, such as weapons and explosives; enforcing property rules and regulations; detecting and reporting criminal acts; and responding to emergency situations involving facility safety and security. In general, guards may only detain, not arrest, individuals, and guards’ authorities typically do not extend beyond the facility. However some guards may have arrest authority under conditions set forth by the individual states. According to FPS’s contract for guard service, its private-sector contract guard companies have primary responsibility for training and ensuring that guards have met certification and qualification requirements; however, FPS is ultimately responsible for oversight of the guards. FPS relies on its Contracting Officer Representatives (COR) and inspectors located in its 11 regions to inspect guard posts and verify that training, certifications, and time cards are accurate, among other responsibilities. CORs are individuals appointed by the contracting officer to assist in the monitoring or administration of a contract including monitoring contractor performance, receiving reports and other documentation, performing inspections, and maintaining contact with both the contract guard company and the contracting officer.for providing and maintaining all guard services as described in the contract statement of work, including management, supervision, training, equipment, supplies, and licensing. Before guards are assigned to a post or an area of responsibility at a federal facility, FPS requires that they all have contractor employee fitness determinations (the employee’s fitness to work on behalf of the government based on character and conduct) and complete approximately 120 hours of training provided by the contractor and FPS, including basic training, firearms training, and screener (X-ray and magnetometer) training. Guards must also pass an FPS-administered written examination and possess the necessary certificates, licenses, and permits as required by the contract. Additionally, FPS requires its guards to complete 40 hours of refresher training every 3 years. Some states and localities require that guards obtain additional training and certifications. See table 1 for a detailed list of FPS’s guard training, certification, and qualification requirements. We found similarities in the ways that FPS and six federal agencies we reviewed ensure that contract guards have received required training, certifications, and qualifications. Similar to FPS, each of the six agencies we examined—DOE, NASA, PFPA, State, the Kennedy Center, and the Holocaust Museum—depend largely on the contract guard companies to ensure guards are trained, certified, and qualified. They also depend on the guard companies to document compliance with contract requirements. All six agencies and FPS require basic, firearms, and screener (x-ray and magnetometer) training for their armed guards. In addition, FPS and five of the six agencies we reviewed require refresher training. FPS continues to experience difficulty providing required screener (x-ray and magnetometer equipment) training to all guards. In 2009 and 2010, we reported that FPS had not provided screener training to 1,500 contract guards in one FPS region. In response to our reports, FPS stated that it planned to implement a program to train its inspectors to provide screener training to all of its contract guards. Under this program, FPS planned to first provide x-ray and magnetometer training to its inspectors who would subsequently be responsible for training the guards. However, FPS continues to have guards deployed to federal facilities without this training. As noted in table 1, FPS requires all guards to receive 8 hours of initial screener training provided by FPS. Screener training is important because guards control access points at federal facilities and thus must be able to properly operate x-ray and magnetometer machines and understand their results. However, 3 years after our 2010 report, guards are deployed to federal facilities who have never received this training. For example, an official at one contract guard company stated that 133 of its approximately 350 guards (about 38 percent) on three separate FPS contracts (awarded in 2009) have never received their initial x-ray and magnetometer training from FPS. The official stated that some of these guards are working at screening posts without having received the training. Further, officials at another guard company in a different FPS region stated that, according to their records, 78 of 295 guards (about 26 percent) deployed under their contract have never received FPS’s x-ray and magnetometer training. These officials stated that FPS’s regional officials were informed of the problem, but allowed guards to continue to work under this contract, despite not having completed required training. Because FPS is responsible for this training, according to guard company officials, no action was taken against the company. In May 2013, FPS headquarters officials stated that they were unaware of any regions in which guards had not received screener training. In July 2013, according to FPS officials, the agency began designing a “train-the-trainer” pilot program with four guard companies. Through this pilot program, contract guard company instructors, in addition to FPS inspectors, will be certified to provide screener training to guards. FPS officials stated that they plan to implement the pilot program in the first quarter of 2014. According to FPS officials, once implemented, FPS’s train-the-trainer program should increase the number of certified instructors capable of providing screener training nationwide. If this program is fully implemented, FPS screener training could be provided largely by the guard companies. This is the method by which four of the six agencies we spoke with provide their guards with screener training. In addition, officials from 13 of the 31 guard companies that we interviewed stated that responsibility for x-ray and magnetometer training should be shifted to the guard companies to alleviate scheduling problems, while officials from 7 companies stated that FPS should retain this responsibility. The remaining 11 guard companies did not state an opinion on this issue. FPS’s train-the-trainer program could provide resources to address the challenges it faces in providing screener training to guards. However, the program is in its beginning stages and there are still guards deployed to federal facilities who have not received required screener training. Screener training is essential to helping prevent unauthorized individuals and items from entering federal facilities. Thus, it is critical that FPS immediately provide this training to those guards who have not received it. According to FPS officials, the agency requires its guards to receive training on how to respond to an active-shooter scenario, but we found that some guards have not received it. According to DHS, an active shooter is an individual killing or attempting to kill people in a confined and populated area. Since June 2009 there have been several incidents involving active-shooters at government facilities. For instance, in 2010 an active-shooter opened fire in the Lloyd D. George Federal Courthouse in Las Vegas, Nevada, killing a security officer and wounding a deputy U.S. Marshal. According to FPS officials, since 2010, it has provided training on how guards should respond during an active-shooter incident to guards as part of the 8-hour FPS-provided orientation training guards receive. FPS officials were not able to specify how much time is devoted to this training, but said that it is a small portion of the 2-hour special situations In addition, officials stated that guards hired before 2010 should training.have received this information during guard-company-provided training on the guards’ post orders (which outline the duties and responsibilities associated with each guard post and include information on responding to an active-shooter situation) during basic and refresher training. However, when we asked contract guard company officials if their guards had received training on how guards should respond during active- shooter incidents, responses varied. For example, of the 16 contract guard companies we interviewed about this topic: eight contract guard company officials stated that their guards have received active-shooter scenario training during orientation, five guard company officials stated that FPS has not provided active- shooter scenario training to their guards, and three guard companies stated that FPS had not provided active- shooter scenario training to their guards during the FPS-provided orientation training, but that the topic was covered in one of the following ways: during guard company-provided basic training or refresher training, FPS provided on-the-job instruction on the topic during post FPS provided a link to an active-shooter training video, which the company shows its guards. The six agencies we reviewed—State, the Holocaust Museum, NASA, PFPA, the Kennedy Center, and DOE—also recognize this threat and five of them require active-shooter response training for their contract guards. According to officials at DOE, the agency is in the process of requiring guards to complete active-shooter response training to ensure they are capable of addressing this threat and protecting facility occupants. Similarly, Holocaust Museum officials stated that they require this training because current trends in law enforcement warrant active-shooter response training for guards.