The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is mismanaging an upgrade to its vital border security computer database that tracks who is eligible to enter the United States, according to the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
GAO’s Director of Information Technology Management Issues David A. Powner testified before a House homeland security subcommittee on Thursday, regarding millions in waste and failures by DHS to meet deadlines for upgrading its primary border enforcement system.
TECS is the DHS system responsible for “sharing information about people who are inadmissible or may pose a threat to the security of the United States.” The program has been used since the 1980s to prevent terrorism and provide border security, but currently relies on “obsolete technology” that cannot “match names from foreign alphabets.”
DHS began modernizing the database in 2008, with plans to complete its upgrades by September 2015. Management failures, however, make it unlikely that deadline will be met.
