Customs seeks more execs, $1.4B computer upgrade

The Customs Service needs a new $1.4 billion computer system to keep up with the booming growth of international trade, Customs Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly told lawmakers Thursday.

Kelly also told the Senate Finance Committee he would like to hire more senior executives and offer temporary positions of three to four years to private sector managers at a pay rate "that's higher than the going government rate."

Kelly would also like Congress to give him special Schedule B hiring authority, under which new Customs hires would have a three-year probationary period. The standard probationary period for government employees is one year.

But the most important management improvement needed at Customs is a new computer system that would cost $1.4 billion over four years to replace the 16-year-old system Customs now uses, Kelly said. The current system, which relies on the COBOL computer language and software developed in 1978, is on "life support," he said.

"Clearly we need money-a lot of money-for a commercial system," Kelly said.

Lawmakers voiced their support for Kelly's plans, but said they did not support a $300 million user fee the Clinton administration has proposed to help pay for the computer system. Committee Chairman William Roth, R-Del., Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, and others said the money should come from cuts in other government programs.

Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, also warned Customs officials to carefully monitor the development of the agency's new Automated Commercial Environment.

"Just make sure you don't do it the way IRS did it earlier this decade," Grassley told Kelly, referring to an IRS modernization effort in which billions of dollars were spent without improving the agency's technology infrastructure.

In calling for more Senior Executive Service positions at the Customs Service, Kelly said the ratio of SESers to employees is 1-to-300, compared to 1-to-100 at many other agencies.

"Attempts to flatten the organization have left the lines of authority murky," Kelly said.

Kelly also warned that without an increase in funding of $300 million for the computer system, the Customs Service will have to consider laying off employees and limiting Customs office hours.