Customs Service managers inspect themselves

U.S. Customs Service managers aren't just evaluating their employees anymore. By performing self-assessments on programs they oversee, Customs managers are trying to promote accountability and integrity within their own ranks. But they have a lot of hurdles to overcome to fully implement the new approach, according to a new General Accounting Office report.

Under Customs' new Self-Inspection Program (SIP), all Customs supervisors and managers grade themselves on their various supervisory responsibilities every six months using standardized worksheets. The worksheets cover everything from labor and employee relations to more specific tasks, such as handling seized currency. Questions include the following: "Did you require appropriate rationale for the use of official time?" "Was the seized currency photographed in bulk and the photographs maintained in the case file?"

Last October, Congress asked GAO find out how well the Customs' SIP was working. While the program has lofty goals, Customs still is dealing with more practical problems, GAO concluded in the report, "Customs Service: Information on the Self-Inspection Program" (GGD-00-1510).

Among the biggest issues is the lack of a way to rigorously analyze the results of self-assessments. "Without an automated system, which is under development, it has been difficult for Customs officials to manually track self-inspection results to identify national trends or to track whether corrective actions have been taken," the report said.

A system designed to solve these problems, the Self-Inspection Reporting System, is now being developed.

Key features of the SIP include:

• Inspecting financial vulnerability and corruption, and mission performance and resource utilization.
• Using uniform worksheets designed to reveal points of interest to managers.
• Funneling results up the chain of command.
• Performing inspections on a set schedule.

According to Riley, Customs has already begun to reap the benefits of the new program, including "identifying and correcting weak controls over travel cards, getting a handle on the Service's badges and credential inventory, and providing a mechanism for accountability for audit findings and corrective actions."

Customs tailored its approach to the self-inspection process after reviewing similar programs in place at the Drug Enforcement Agency, the New York Police Department and Xerox Corp.

GAO will conduct a follow-up report on issues relating to program implementation this summer.