GAO sees progress, ongoing problems in DHS cargo program

The Homeland Security Department must improve acquisitions management to avoid cost overruns and scheduling delays in updating and expanding its cargo processing system, according to a new Government Accountability Office report.

Over the past four years, GAO has issued a series of recommendations on DHS' Automated Commercial Environment, a program aimed at replacing and supplementing existing cargo processing technology. ACE is designed to ease legitimate trade while securing the border against unlawful commercial traffic. The ambitious program, slated as a $1.3 billion, five-year contract upon its award in 2001, already has far exceeded its anticipated costs and has repeatedly been called risky and unrealistic by GAO and Congress.

According to the watchdog agency, DHS has implemented many of the previous recommendations in areas like cost estimation, program reporting and performance measurement. Despite this progress, DHS must make further management improvements to avoid future problems, the report concluded.

GAO expressed particular concern about the areas of accountability and reporting. DHS is required to provide quarterly reports on ACE to the House and Senate Appropriations committees and an annual expenditure plan. According to GAO, much of the information provided to Congress is out of date due to a two- to seven-month lapse between when the reports are produced and when they are provided to the committees. DHS and program officials have committed to accelerating the review process to improve both the timeliness and accuracy of their quarterly reports, GAO said.

ACE program managers have struggled to reduce overlap among components of the program and have worked to ensure that limited resources are used wisely, the report stated. While the program office is conducting regular meetings among employees organizing the various components and using software to avoid overlaps, GAO reported that the software tool contains vague or incomplete data, making it difficult to determine its effectiveness.

The report also recommended that DHS improve human capital management practices. While an ACE-specific human capital plan was approved in 2006, GAO stated that the plan did not adequately define the positions necessary to perform core programs. It also failed to include a strategy to assess the current workforce's skills or to fill identified gaps. DHS officials acknowledged the limitation of the plan and reported to GAO that they are developing a strategy to address the shortfalls.

In response to the report, officials with DHS and its component agency, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said they are committed to fully addressing the all recommendations. Officials responsible for ACE also plan to strengthen risk management by undertaking a round of risk identification to cover contractor technical and management personnel as well as government employees. Identification sessions already are under way.