SBInet program office doesn't effectively manage risk

August 1, 2010 — 10:58pm ET | By David Perera

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Janet Napolitano
CBP
Richard Spires
SBInet
DHS
IV&V
DHS OCIO

The Homeland Security Department chief information officer was unable to certify that the SBInet program office effectively manages risk, according to a Government Accountability Office report.

The report--released July 30 and based on briefings the watchdog agency gave to Senate and House appropriations committees in mid-June--states that when the DHS CIO reviewed SBInet spending plans for the current fiscal year, he did not certify that the program's risk management process is effective. Nor did he find that SBInet architecture is sufficiently aligned with departmental architecture, or that the program has an independent verification and validation contractor.

Rather, in a memo dated May 12, DHS CIO Richard Spires identified a number of required actions the program office would first have to first undertake before he could certify those conditions as true. DHS, in an expenditure plan submitted to Congress, said that it has "begun a new initiative to procure an open architecture," the GAO report states.

SBInet is DHS's multi-billion dollar program to blanket U.S. borders with a chain of radars, cameras, and heat and motion detectors, allowing border patrol agents working from a common operational picture. SBInet has cost $1.9 billion so far, or 564 percent more than the initial projected cost, according to another GAO report. The prime contractor is Boeing (NYSE: BA).

New work on the program has been halted since DHS Secretary's March announcement that the department froze additional funding for anything beyond already begun initial deployments along 53 mile stretch of Arizona border. The fate of the project hinges in great measure on a review Napolitano initiated in January; that assessment is scheduled for completion by Sept. 30, the GAO report states.

For more:
- download the report, GAO-10-877R (.pdf)

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