DHS' Failing Grades

Six years after 9-11 it seems appropriate to spend some time writing about the agency that tragic day

spawned. A recent GAO report indicates that more than four years after its establishment, DHS is floundering as an agency.

I read the 32 page statement of David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the United States. Titled "Department of Homeland Security Progress Report on Implementation of Mission and Management Functions" it made for an interesting read and highlighted the findings of the complete 328 page report of the same title (I'm enough of a sadist to read the whole thing.).

Bottom line: If DHS were a college student, they'd be on academic probation. Click on the thumbnail for a glimpse of DHS' report card:

The report cites some historical examples as to why the task at hand is so hard:

Prior to the creation of DHS, we testified on whether the reorganization of government agencies might better address the nation’s homeland security needs.2 At that time, we testified that the nation had a unique opportunity to create an effective and performance-based organization to strengthen the nation’s ability to protect its borders and citizens. We noted that the magnitude of the challenges that the new department would face would require substantial time and effort and that implementation of the new department would be extremely complex. Often it has taken years for the consolidated functions in new organizations to effectively build on their combined strengths, and it is not uncommon for management challenges to remain for decades. For example, the 1947 legislation creating the Department of Defense (DOD) was amended by Congress in 1949, 1953, 1958, and 1986 to improve the department’s structural effectiveness. Despite these and other changes made by DOD, we have reported that more than 50 years after its establishment, DOD continues to face a number of serious management challenges.

I'd cite another historical reference from that period. It took about 45 months after Pearl Harbor to secure the surrender of the Japanese. 72 months after 9-11, and we're still facing "serious management challenges". Americans can do better.

Another key piece of information from the report:

We have designated information sharing for homeland security as high-risk in part because the nation still lacks an implemented set of government wide policies and processes for sharing terrorism-related information. The federal government has issued a strategy for how it will put in place the overall framework and policies for sharing information with critical partners. DHS has taken actions to implement its information-sharing responsibilities, but we have reported that DHS faces challenges in continuing to develop productive information-sharing relationships with federal agencies, state and local governments, and the private sector.

In large part, 9-11 was caused by the failure to share and fuse information about the terrorist plot. The pieces to the puzzle were there, and the attack was preventable if only the right people had the right information. DHS has yet to solve this problem.

My assessment if that these issues won't get solved in the current administration. Its too late in the term, and DHS is already suffering from huge gaps in its management ranks. Will anybody really want to take on a job like this with the game clock ticking down on the Bush administration? It will take a concerted effort from the next administration, Republican or Democrat, to fix this agency.

Related:
I wrote about the problems with DHS-funded fusion centers.
DHS's data mining program was recently suspended.
DHS responds to the GAO report.

Note: DHS may not be able to get its information sharing act together, but the GAO sure has. You can even get RSS feeds to their reports. Okay, to be fair you can do that at DHS too.