Washington DC Nov 26 2012 Getting the agencies responsible for national security tocommunicate better was one of the main reasons the Department of HomelandSecurity was created after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
But according to a recent report from the department’sinspector general, one aspect of this mission remains far from accomplished.
DHS has spent $430 million over the past nine years toprovide radios tuned to a common, secure channel to 123,000 employees acrossthe country. Problem is, no one seems to know how to use them.
Only one of 479 DHS employees surveyed by the inspectorgeneral’s office was actually able to use the common channel, according to thereport. Most of those surveyed — 72 percent — didn’t even know the commonchannel existed. Another 25 percent knew the channel existed but weren’t ableto find it; 3 percent were able to find an older common channel, but not thecurrent one.
The investigators also found that more than half of theradios did not have the settings for the common channel programmed into them.Only 20 percent of radios tested had all the correct settings.
The radios are supposed to help employees of Customs andBorder Patrol, the Transportation Security Administration, the Coast Guard,Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Federal Emergency Management Agency,the Secret Service, and other agencies with DHS communicate during crises, aswell as normal operations.
DHS officials did not immediately respond to questions fromProPublica about what effect the radio problems could have on how the agencyhandles an emergency.
The $430 million paid for radio infrastructure andmaintenance as well as the actual radios.
In a response letter to the report, Jim H. Crumpacker, theDepartment of Homeland Security’s liaison between the Government AccountabilityOffice and the inspector general, wrote that DHS had made “significant strides”in improving emergency communications since 2003. But he acknowledged that DHS“has had some challenges in achieving Department-wide interoperablecommunications goals.”
The recent inspector general’s report is the latest in astring of critical assessments DHS has received on its efforts to improvecommunication between federal, state and local agencies. The GovernmentAccountability Office reported in 2007 that the Department of Homeland Securityhad “generally not achieved” this goal.
DHS has assigned a blizzard of offices and committees tooversee its radio effort since 2003, which the inspector general’s reportclaimed had “hindered DHS’ ability to provide effective oversight.”
Also, none of the entities “had the authority to implementand enforce their recommendations,” the report concluded. Tanya Callender, aspokeswoman for the inspector general, said the current office overseeing theeffort hadn’t been given the authority to force agencies to use the commonchannel or even to provide instructions for programming the radios.
The inspector general recommended DHS standardize itspolicies regarding radios, which DHS agreed to do. But it rejected a secondrecommendation that it overhaul the office overseeing the radios to give itmore authority.
“DHS believes that it has already established a structurewith the necessary authority to ensure” that its various agencies cancommunicate, Crumpacker wrote in his response letter.
Source:BeaumontObserver.net
Hiç yorum yok:
Yorum Gönder