Homeland Security Criticized for Lax Oversight of Programs Worth

(GovExec.com – Katherine McIntire Peters)

Auditors with the Government Accountability Office have found that 45 of 48 major investment programs managed by the Homeland Security Department were not evaluated according to department policies, and 18 of those were not reviewed at all.

“Consequently, DHS has not identified and addressed cost, schedule and performance problems in many major investments,” GAO stated in a report (GAO-09-29) released on Thursday. Auditors found that at least 14 of the programs had experienced such issues.

Among the investments that did not receive mandatory oversight board evaluations was the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Consolidated Alert and Warning System, a $1.6 billion program to update the Emergency Alerting System. Another was Customs and Border Protection’s Secure Freight Initiative, a $1.7 billion program designed to test the feasibility of scanning all U.S.-bound cargo containers at foreign seaports. Full story: here.