The Customs Service's unsuccessful effort to modernize its computer systems got a limited reprieve Friday when the Treasury Department found $3 million to keep the National Commercial Automated Prototype (NCAP) running.
NCAP was slated to be shut down March 13 due to lack of funding.
Now, after almost a month of searching, Treasury has found $1.8 million left over from fiscal 1999 as well as $1.2 million from other sources within the department.
"These funding sources will provide the full amount needed to continue" the prototype, Lisa Ross, Treasury's acting assistant secretary for management and chief financial officer, wrote to Rep. Jim Kolbe, R-Ariz., chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Treasury, Postal Service and General Government. She asked the subcommittee to approve the redirection of funds.
Kolbe has said that he supports the program and the subcommittee is likely to approve Treasury's request.
NCAP runs at three border crossings, one on the Mexican border and two on the Canadian border. The system allows for speedy passage through Customs and enables Ford Motor Co., DaimlerChrysler AG and General Motors Corp. to install auto parts in cars at assembly lines in the United States the same day the parts are shipped from the neighboring countries.
In early February, Customs officials announced they would shut down the prototype sites and the office in charge of building the agency's long-planned Automated Commercial Environment. Congress has failed to appropriate the money for the new system for the past two years. The announcement drew protests from the business community and the information technology industry.
Ross' letter said Treasury is continuing to search for the $12 million Customs needs to complete the contract award process for the Automated Commercial Environment. "We have been reviewing different funding sources to fund the Automated Commercial Environment program. This program is of great importance to the department and the administration," Ross wrote.
The Automated Commercial Environment would streamline Customs' import processes, which haven't changed much for 200 years.
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