FBI tech upgrade still more than three years away

The FBI will not complete its departmentwide technology upgrade for more than three years, FBI Director Robert Mueller said in an oversight hearing held by the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday.

"As we briefed the staff of the Judiciary Committee yesterday, we're planning on deploying [the system] in four phases over the next 40 months," he said. "I will assure you that we're committed to obtaining best products at lowest costs."

The members of the committee have blasted Mueller in the past on the costly failure of the FBI's Virtual Case File system, which the department spent $170 million to build but announced in March that it would replace with a new project dubbed Sentinel. The senators' questions Wednesday focused on how they could help the department speed its tech upgrade so FBI agents could be as efficient as possible in tracking terrorism suspects.

"Director Mueller, we appreciate what you're doing and we want to be helpful to you, but there has to be some way to move forward," said committee Chairman Arlen Specter, R-Pa.

Asked by Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, how taxpayers can be assured of the projected costs and scheduled rollout of FBI information technology projects, Mueller assured the senator that the Sentinel upgrade is under heightened outside oversight. He said the FBI is consulting the Markle Foundation and Rand for advice, and the agency also is continually talking with the Justice Department inspector general's office for project oversight.

A statement submitted to the committee from Justice Inspector General Glenn Fine asserted that the FBI continues to be hobbled by its IT systems. Though acknowledging that the management of the FBI has worked to implement the changes suggested by his office, Fine said the systems are still a problem.

"In essence, the FBI is in the business of uncovering, analyzing, sharing and acting on information," he wrote. "To do so effectively, it must have adequate information technology and case-management systems. But the FBI's current information technology systems are far short of what is needed."

The committee's top Democrat, Patrick Leahy from Vermont, blasted the FBI for its faulty maintenance of terrorist watch lists, which are used in various government screening procedures. The highest profile list to rely on the FBI data is the Secure Flight system for screening airline passengers.

Leahy said watch lists are inaccurate and incomplete, and suffer from questionable risk assignments to suspected terrorists. He also noted that the inspector general's office recently found that the FBI's Terrorism Screening Center's reliance on contractors has led to ineffective leadership, and that the center has failed to hire qualified staff to man its tech operations.