Until recently, the Department of Homeland Security’s component agencies weren’t giving proper scrutiny to non-major acquisition programs, according to a new Government Accountability Office report.
Many of the programs didn’t have established cost and schedule baselines — and in some cases, the agencies couldn’t identify certain programs at all, the GAO said. DHS’s non-major acquisitions include various kinds of systems and capabilities. The report cited examples such as a Customs and Border Protection mobile video surveillance system and a wearable system that can detect radiological threats.
Agencies such as the Coast Guard and Customs and Border Protection “lack the information needed to effectively oversee their non-major acquisitions because they cannot confidently identify all of them,” auditors found. “They identified over $6 billion in non-major acquisitions; however, GAO found 8 of the 11 components could not identify them all.”