The Department of Homeland Security has been the subject of more than 1,000 reports by the General Accountability Office. So its latest progress report, issued Sept. 7, covered familiar ground in suggesting that while DHS has implement key homeland security operations and reached important milestones, work remains to address gaps and weaknesses.

DHS’s accomplishments include developing strategic and operational plans; deploying workforces; and establishing new, or expanding existing, offices and programs.

For example, DHS

• issued plans to guide its efforts, such as the Quadrennial Homeland Security Review, which provides a framework for homeland security, and the National Response Framework, which outlines disaster response guiding principles;
• successfully hired, trained, and deployed workforces, such as a federal screening workforce to assume security screening responsibilities at airports nationwide; and
• created new programs and offices to implement its homeland security responsibilities, such as establishing the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team to help coordinate efforts to address cybersecurity threats.

While DHS has made progress, GAO’s identified three themes at the foundation of DHS’s challenges:

Leading and coordinating the homeland security enterprise. DHS has made
important strides in providing leadership and coordinating efforts among its
stakeholders. However, DHS needs to take additional action to forge effective
partnerships and strengthen the sharing and utilization of information, which has
affected its ability to effectively satisfy its missions. For example, the
expectations of private sector stakeholders have not been met by DHS and its
federal partners in areas related to sharing information about cyber-based threats
to critical infrastructure.

Implementing and integrating management functions for results. DHS has
enhanced its management functions, and has plans in place to further strengthen
the management of the department for results. However, DHS has not always
effectively executed or integrated these functions. In 2003, GAO designated the
transformation of DHS as high risk because DHS had to transform 22 agencies
into one department. DHS has demonstrated strong leadership commitment and
begun to implement a strategy to address its management challenges. However,
these challenges have contributed to schedule delays, cost increases, and
performance problems in a number of programs aimed at delivering important
mission capabilities, such as a system to detect certain nuclear materials in
vehicles and containers at ports. DHS also faced difficulties in deploying some
technologies that meet defined requirements. Further, DHS does not yet have
enough skilled personnel in various areas, such as acquisition management; and
has not yet developed an integrated financial management system, impacting its
ability to have ready access to reliable information for informed decision making.

Strategically managing risks and assessing homeland security efforts.
Forming a new department while working to implement statutorily mandated and
department-initiated programs and responding to evolving threats, was, and is, a
significant challenge facing DHS. Key threats have impacted DHS’s approaches
and investments. It is understandable that these threats had to be addressed
immediately as they arose. However, limited strategic and program planning by
DHS and limited assessment to inform approaches and investment decisions
have contributed to programs not meeting strategic needs in an efficient manner.