Nearly half of the major acquisition programs at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reviewed by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) in 2015 were meeting current cost and schedule targets, but overall the department’s “execution and affordability concerns endure,” the auditing agency said in a new report.
Of the 25 programs reviewed by the GAO, 11 are meeting schedule and cost performance goals, that’s up from two in 2014, according to the new report and another by the agency a year ago that examined acquisition programs at DHS (Defense Daily, April 22, 2015). Of the remaining programs reviewed, eight experienced schedule or cost slips, or both, with life-cycle cost estimates rising $1.7 billion, and the other six programs still lack Approved Program Baselines (APB), thereby preventing GAO from assessing whether these programs were on track with respect to schedule and cost targets.
The 11 programs on target with respect to cost and schedule are Customs and Border Protection’s Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) and TECS Modernization, which also is managed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the National Protection and Programs Directorate’s (NPPD) National Cybersecurity Protection System, more commonly known as EINSTEIN, the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) explosives detection system program for checked baggage screening, the Science and Technology Directorate’s National Bo And Agro-Defense Facility that is under construction, and the Coast Guard’s National Security Cutter, Fast Response Cutter, C4ISR, HH-65 helicopter conversion and sustainment projects, and the HC-130H/J long-range surveillance aircraft program. The report is entitled Homeland Security Acquisitions: DHS Has Strengthened Management, but Execution and Affordability Concerns Endure (GAO-16-338SP).
A year ago just CBP’s ACE electronic trade portal and TSA’s Electronic Baggage Screening Program were on target to meet initial cost and schedule goals, GAO said then.
In the new report, the programs not on schedule and or cost are CBP’s Integrated Fixed Tower (IFT) program, NPPD’s Continuous Diagnostics & Mitigation (CDM) cyber security program and the Next Generation Networks Priority Services, TSA’s Passenger Screening Program for airport checkpoints and the agency’s Technology Infrastructure Modernization, the DHS Office of the Chief Information Officer’s Homeland Security Information Network, the Coast Guard’s Offshore Patrol Cutter (OPC), and United States Citizenship and Immigration Service’s Transformation.
The estimated growth for the IFT program, which is a surveillance system currently being deployed along a portion of Arizona’s border with Mexico, grew from $288 million in January 2015 to $341 million in January 2016. The cost estimates for the CDM program increased the most, going from $1.6 billion a year ago to $2.7 billion currently, GAO said.
Citing agency officials, GAO noted that the CDM and OPC programs suffered schedule slippages due to protests over contract awards. Sill, the report said that CDM slipped six months in 2015 yet is two years and five months behind schedule while the OPC program was delayed four months in 2015 but is one year and one month behind schedule.
The six programs without APBs are CBP’s Land Border Integration, Non-Intrusive Inspection systems, Strategic Air and Marine program that is being discontinued, and Tactical Communications Modernization, the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s Logistics Supply Chain Management System, and the Coast Guard’s Medium Range Surveillance Aircraft, which includes the HC-144A and C-27J aircraft. These same programs lacked APBs a year ago as well.
The report said that just over half, 14, of the 25 programs reviewed are projected to receive at least 93 percent of the funding they need through FY ’20. Another 10 programs though are expected to have a funding gap exceeding 10 percent during this period, including five Coast Guard programs—C4ISR, HH-65 conversion, long and medium-range surveillance aircraft, and the OPC—facing a 40 percent funding shortfall, it said.