The Department of Homeland Security has made progress
in implementing US-VISIT – designed to collect and share
information on foreign nationals traveling to the U.S.,
but the program has had difficulty getting on its feet,
the Government Accountability Office has said.
The program’s expenditure plan has to meet a number of
conditions, including GAO review, which the 2005 plan
partially met, including the Office of Management and
Budget’s capital planning and investment control
requirements, partly by having laid out how it will
implement and institutionalize a risk management program.
In its comments, GAO acknowledged the progress management
has made, but underscored the “the need for rigorous and
disciplined program practices” — for example, US-VISIT
picked up a contractor to help it complete its mission,
but has not begun “tracking progress against commitments,”
practices GAO associates with other successful programs.
The 2005 plan fails to “describe progress against
commitments made in previous plans,” namely capabilities,
schedule, cost and benefits, according to GAO-05-202.
It said DHS has had trouble tracking essential information
on the entry and exit of persons entering at air, land
and seaports, and pilot programs to test alternatives
have missed milestones and face compressed time frames —
the evaluation period dropped from three to two months.
US-VISIT officials cite security clearance delays for
civilian employees who would operate government equipment
at the ports as a major factor holding back the effort,
something GAO says has introduced “additional risk”
relating to the ability of the program to meet “promised
capabilities and benefits on time and within budget.”
The as of November 2004, only five of the 15 pilots
scheduled to be up and running were operational at
ports of entry, and the program could be forced to
reduce scope, said GAO.
