The Government Accountability Office has called for management
improvements to the Department of Homeland Security’s
“visitor and immigrant status indicator technology” program.
The program is designed to collect, verify, maintain, and
share information, including biometric information, on
foreign nationals that enter and leave the country and
screen them against watch lists.
To date, US-VISIT has met a number of legislative requirements
and has set up a pre-entry screening capability in overseas
visa offices, an entry identification capability at 11
airports, 14 seaports, and 154 land entry points and
accomplished this throughout a challenging transformation
phase, according to GAO-06-318T.
It said however that DHS stills needs to implement
recommendations to ensure it holds itself accountable for
results and can maximize program results.
DHS has clarified the program’s operational context, and
has drafted a strategic plan to show how US-VISIT is aligned
with an overall vision for immigration and border management,
but its integration with other border security initiatives
remains unclear because the plan still needs to be approved,
the report said.
It said the department has analyzed the program’s costs,
benefits and risks but cannot yet demonstrate that it is
producing or will produce mission value commensurate with
expected costs and risks — and its analysis of exit options
do not demonstrate that these solutions will be cost effective.
Further, GAO also said the department’s expenditure plans
have not described progress with previous commitments which
could jeopardize the ability to manage and oversee the program.
However, the department has made progress establishing human
capital capabilities that could help out in past problem areas
such as test management, according to the report.
