The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) hasn’t made adequate progress in gaining efficiencies in its field operations, leaving millions of dollars of potential savings on the table, according to a new report by the Republican Staff of the House Homeland Security Committee.
“Despite being the Nation’s third largest federal department, DHS continues to struggle with legacy challenges from its initial integration of 22 different Federal departments and agencies,” says the Aug. 2 report, Streamlining the Department of Homeland Security’s Overhead Will Make the Homeland Safer. It says in the creation of the department 13 years ago many of the previous departments and agencies had their own field office structure and that “’legacy’ way of doing business, especially among the department’s seven operational components, created management challenges that DHS still faces today.”
The report says that more efficient field operations would mean “tens of millions of taxpayer dollars can be saved.”
DHS’ nationwide real estate footprint costs about $2 billion annually yet various component management processes make it difficult for department headquarters staff to understand this portfolio of properties and the department hasn’t pressed its components to coordinate property decisions, “resulting in a real estate footprint that has swollen well beyond what the Department actually needs to carry out its mission,” the report says.
There are some good examples of real estate management but overall management is lacking, the report says.
“The most egregious example was in New York City, New York, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement has a vacant 250-bed detection center that has not been used since the events of 9/11,” the report says. The agency is paying $3.5 million annually to rent this space, most of which is “unusable,” it adds.
The report says that the more DHS spends on unnecessary overhead the less money available to carry out homeland security missions.
“The more DHS wastes on unnecessary overhead costs, the less money and resource it has to carry out key missions including: border security, interior enforcement, cybersecurity, aviation security, and supporting first responders,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, said in a statement.
The report says that more DHS components should co-locate operations, which will save money and foster greater collaboration.
In addition to facilities, further cost savings could be had by better managing other elements of DHS’ property portfolio such as vehicle fleets and training centers, the report says, pointing to a 2014 study by the department’s Inspector General that found that operations underutilized vehicles costing between $35 million and $49 million in FY ’12. The report cites a more recent Inspector General study showing that the mismanagement of the Federal Protective Service vehicle fleet prevented $2.5 million in savings in FY ’14.
The report says that nine different components of DHS operate 31 training center within the U.S. Consolidating these would save money and increase efficiencies, it says.