Report: DHS slow to enact border security recommendations
Implementation of security plans and privacy impact assessments are among neglected suggestions, GAO says.
The Homeland Security Department has been slow to implement a series of recommendations for strengthening its visitor tracking program, increasing the chance that it will fail to meet goals on time and on budget, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Tuesday.
GAO has issued 18 management-related recommendations for the U.S. Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology program since May 2003, the report (GAO-06-296) said. The suggestions involve cost-benefit analyses, cost estimates and justifications, testing plans and human resource plans.
The department has made some progress in adopting the recommendations, the congressional auditors found, but has been slow in many areas.
GAO found that DHS has fully implemented two recommendations: defining staff roles and responsibilities, and hiring an independent contractor for validation and verification.
But auditors found that implementation was "partially complete" on another 11 recommendations, with activities in place to address them but results not documented. These recommendations include development and implementation of security, risk management and testing plans; cost-benefit analyses of program components; performance of privacy impact assessments; development of acquisition controls; and assessments of completed work.
GAO identified an additional five recommendations as "in progress." They include developing cost-estimating practices and the identification of interdependencies between US VISIT and the Automated Commercial Environment program, an import-export processing system.
Auditors acknowledged that one previous recommendation, to assess the workforce and facilities impacts of introducing biometric travel documents at 50 land-based ports of entry, would be impractical to implement as written because the new system is already in use. Thus GAO replaced its previous guidance, which entailed gathering baseline data for those facilities, with a recommendation to explore other means of accomplishing an impact assessment.
DHS officials rejected many of the auditors' criticisms. In a lengthy response letter, Steven Pecinovsky, director of DHS's GAO/Inspector General Liaison Office, argued that many of the auditors' assessments failed to examine relevant documentation, overlooked US VISIT staff coordinating roles that address concerns including security and privacy, or otherwise failed to acknowledge the full extent of the department's implementation.
In other comments, Pecinovsky noted the shifting guidance and standards the program has been subject to over the past three years, arguing that it has responded rapidly to requirements relevant at particular times.
Nevertheless, "All three congressionally mandated phases of implementation were completed ahead of schedule and under budget," Pecinovsky wrote. "US-VISIT…has exceeded the goals set by Congress and DHS for this program."
Randolph Hite, GAO's director of information technology architecture and systems issues, emphasized the importance of implementing auditors' recommendations quickly.
"According to the program director, the pace of progress is attributable to competing demands on time and resources," he said. "The longer that the program takes to implement the recommendations, the greater the risk that the program will not meet its goals on time and within budget."