Boeing submitted "anomalous" data making its work on SBInet look better than it actually was, says the Government Accountability Office.

In a report dated Oct. 18, the GAO says that during a 21-month period ending in February 2010, the Earned Value Management reports the SBInet prime contractor (NYSE: BA) sent to Customs and Border Protection contained many unexplained missing or erroneous data values.

For example, a September 2009 EVM report stated that about $25,000 worth of work was performed but that no costs were incurred, suggesting that the work was performed for free, the GAO report says.

SBInet is a Homeland Security Department effort to blanket U.S. borders with a chain of radars, cameras and heat and motion detectors, allowing border patrol agents to work from a common operational picture. SBInet has cost $1.9 billion so far, or 564 percent more than the initial projected cost, according to an earlier Government Accountability Office estimate. The Oct. 18 report says DHS has spent $1.5 billion so far on "virtual fencing" and related infrastructure such as towers, about another $300 million on program management, and an additional $126 million on upgrading CBP telecommunication links.

SBInet officials told the GAO that the problems with the EVM data are due in part to Boeing's use of estimated, rather than actual, costs for subcontractor work. They also said that the reliability of the EVM data has improved since February 2010, but program officials "did not provide any documentation to support this statement," the GAO report says.

The report also criticizes the program office for not establishing reliable baseline schedules for the execution of task orders. The report fund that six examined baselines failed to assign resources to activities and conduct a risk analysis. The baselines did, the GAO says, allow for flexibility, or "float," between activity completion dates, but "the amount of float was excessive," the report states.

The unreliable performance data and unreliable baselines, along with other EVM weaknesses "precluded the program office from identifying problems early and taking corrective action needed to avoid the program's well-chronicled history of schedule delays and cost increases," the report adds.

In DHS's official response to the report, Jerald Levine, director of the DHS GAO/OIG liaison office, said CBP takes issue with GAO's characterization of its management. "Prudent and compliant EVM measures were executed," he wrote.

As for the anomalies, Levine said they aren't anomalies, but "legitimate monthly accounting adjustments."

For more:
- download the report, GAO-11-6 (.pdf)

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