The Department of Homeland Security’s deployment of license plate surveillance systems along US border crossings is being carried out with virtually no contracting oversight—a violation of the department’s own policy, according to a watchdog report published Wednesday.
In a review of 22 major DHS acquisition programs worth billions of dollars, the Government Accountability Office found that the Land Border Integration (LBI) program, which deploys license plate readers for Customs and Border Protection, continues to grow significantly year-over-year despite operating without proper supervision.
“Department leadership has not yet approved an LBI baseline establishing the program’s cost, schedule, and performance parameters,” GAO notes in its report.
Five other DHS programs, including four within CBP, were also found to be lacking baselines as required by department policy, which prevented GAO from “assessing whether the programs were on track to meet their cost estimates and schedules.”
CBP’s license place tracking system has grown rapidly since it was first created in 2001 to cover 51 traffic lanes at US border crossings. By 2014, the number of lanes under its watch had increased to 158, with total funds appropriated for the effort topping out at over $860 million.
In its study, GAO found that projected funding for the program is not keeping up with increasing costs.
“LBI is projected to receive less than 75 percent of its required funding across fiscal years 2017 and 2018,” the report stated.
In a separate observation, the watchdog noted that the LBI had a 30 percent staffing gap in 2014—a claim disputed by management, which said the program was “adequately staffed.”
DHS was also reminded by GAO that previous studies have reached similar conclusions as the report published Wednesday. A September 2012 review of 63 major acquisition programs found that 43 lacked a department-approved cost-estimate and performance goals.
Until the department implements recommendations requiring baselines on all future acquisitions, GAO warned that “department leadership and Congress will be hindered in their efforts to hold the programs accountable for their performance.”
In January, the Wall Street Journal reported on a separate Justice Department and Drug Enforcement Agency license plate tracking program that contains records about hundreds of millions of American drivers—a trove of information that several other law enforcement agencies, including CBP, have access to.
The revelation prompted the chairman and ranking member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Pat Leahy (D-Vt.) to pen a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder, raising privacy concerns about the license plate database, and requesting more information about the surveillance program.
