Early pressures to get up to speed quickly once TSA was formed following
9-11 resulted in a highly decentralized and inefficient IT infrastructure
with limited system integration and data sharing, all of which has
perpetuated inefficient manual work processes, the DHS inspector general
has said.
It said TSA does not manage and apply IT effectively.
Further, because of a lack of authority and standard policies to govern
technology implementation across TSA offices, the CIO cannot readily conduct
IT planning and manage investments throughout the agency, the IG said.
It said a declining number of staff in the central IT division also impedes
the CIO’s ability to manage the IT infrastructure and support new technology
requirements.
The IG called on the assistant administrator for TSA to strengthen agency
IT management by empowering the CIO with agency-wide IT budget and
investment review authority to ensure that IT initiatives and decisions
support accomplishment of TSA mission objectives.
It also called for a consolidated strategic planning approach to ensure that
IT plans across the agency are aligned well and linked to the DHS strategic
plan; completing and implementing an enterprise architecture to establish
technical standards and guidelines; communicating guidelines for acquiring,
developing, and managing IT solutions in a consistent, integrated, and
efficient manner, and applying adequate staff resources to strengthen the
IT Division in addressing IT needs and providing support to TSA operations
agency-wide.
The assistant secretary agreed with the recommendations, and the agency
outlined a number of steps already taken to address several of the
recommendations. It said TSA is ensuring compliance with a management
directive for CIO accountability of the performance, budgeting, expenditure,
and staffing of the agency’s IT resources.
The agency recently awarded a contract to provide support for assessing and
improving enterprise architecture management, the assistant secretary said,
adding that the agency will map processes, data, applications, and
infrastructure to the federal enterprise architecture and TSA strategic
goals, according to the report.
The assistant secretary also said the agency CIO is transforming its
business processes to ensure effective management and administration of
all agency IT resources and assets, and that the human capital office
has completed a position management review of the IT division in August
2006 to determine appropriate staging levels, the report said.
