IG: Immigration agency IT modernization needs stronger focus

Because of repeated changes in focus and direction, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials have duplicated information technology modernization initiatives, auditors said in a recent report.

The Homeland Security Department inspector general report, released late last month, stated that CIS' current business transformation effort duplicates parts of previous attempts by the agency's chief information office to update IT systems. The agency also has repeatedly developed plans to test elements of the transformation program, but has failed to fully implement any of them, the auditors stated.

"By repeatedly revising and delaying implementation of the pilots, USCIS may be losing momentum and user confidence in its transformation approach," the report said.

CIS has canceled two modernizations since its formation in 2003. It has been working on its current effort since the creation of the Transformation Program Office in November 2005.

In response to the report, Jonathan Scharfen, deputy director of CIS, said he generally agreed with the auditors' findings. But he took issue with a statement in the report that the agency's awareness and commitment to business transformation has waned.

Scharfen said the CIO office has remained involved in the process and works with the transformation office and contractor staff to ensure proper alignment. He said some members of the CIO office working outside of Washington may have less interaction with the transformation office because they are farther away.

A September 2005 IG report found inefficiencies in CIS' IT setup and cited an unfocused approach to improving processes and systems. While CIS has taken steps to address the recommendations in that report, several challenges remain, including the repeated changes in focus and direction, according to the audit.

The modernization effort is meant to update citizenship and immigration processes, which, according to the 2005 report, were mostly manual, paper-based and duplicative. Case adjudicators were using multiple IT systems, and software and hardware systems were not configured to meet the users' needs.

A lack of CIO guidance on managing IT system life cycle development has allowed IT staff dispersed around the country to develop nonstandard systems that may not integrate with the rest of the agency's infrastructure, the latest report stated.

Auditors said the proliferation of nonstandard systems already has created problems. For example, a recent attempt by CIS to upgrade computer systems in its field offices from Windows 95 to Windows XP was hampered because many of the locally developed applications were not compatible with the new operating system.

CIS has made progress in realigning its IT employees by moving 90 technical and administrative positions under the CIO, the report stated. But the centralization of the remaining workers as well as IT assets and budgets has been placed on hold while organizational improvements are made, the report stated.

The agency had reduced its backlog of immigration files by more than 70 percent at the end of fiscal 2006, but the IT modernization will be needed if Congress passes large-scale immigration reform that could drastically change the agency's processes and workloads, auditors noted.

In May 2006, the Government Accountability Office found that the agency's $190 million project aimed at automating 55 million paper-based immigration files suffered from inadequate planning. In November 2006, GAO reported that CIS may have processed as many as 30,000 citizenship applications in 2005 without reviewing critical background files, thousands of which have since been lost.