The Transportation Security Administration and the Department
of Homeland Security need to step-up management of the
research and development of technologies for detecting,
preventing, and mitigating terrorist threats, the Government
Accountability Office has said.
It said TSA and DHS have made management progress according
to applicable laws and best practices, but that neither
agency has fully complied with the laws or implemented the
best practices — for example, neither agency has prepared a
strategic plan for R-and-D that contains measurable
objectives.
Further, “although TSA has completed threat assessments
for all modes, it has not completed vulnerability and
criticality assessments,” nor has DHS completed “risk
assessments of the infrastructure sectors” — and neither
have “complete, consolidated data,” for managing their
projects, according to according to GAO-04-890.
It said that according to the national research council,
federal R-and-D programs should include basic research,
but that TSA and DHS do not appear to be funding basic
transportation security research, not have they estimated
deployment dates for most of their R-and-D projects.
In fiscal 2003 and 2004, TSA and DHS funded over 200
R-and-D projects designed to develop technologies for
enhancing security in most modes of transportation —
and in fiscal 2003, TSA spent 81 percent of its $21
million transportation security R-and-D budget for
aviation projects, with DHS spending about half of its
$26 million for projects related to more than one mode
of transportation, said GAO.
It said an expert panel on transportation security and
technology that it convened was divided as to whether
the distribution of R-and-D projects according to
transportation mode was reasonable — in fiscal 2004,
TSA continued to budget most of its $159 million for
aviation, and DHS budgeted most of its $88 million for
aviation.
It is unclear if aviation has been over emphasized at
the expense of land and maritime modes, said GAO.
