GAO Issues Report on the ACE Expenditure Plan, Management of ACE (Part II - Final)

This is Part II, the final part of a multi-part series of summaries on this GAO report and highlights information on the full deployment of ACE, the status of ACE, etc.

ACE Expected to be Fully Deployed by 2011, Cost Estimates Being Revised

GAO states that ACE began in 2001, is being developed and deployed in a series of increments to about 300 ports of entry, and is expected to be fully deployed and operational by the end of 2011.

An August 2006 ACE Program Plan states that ACE is expected to cost about $3.3 billion. However, program officials informed GAO that cost and schedule estimates are being revised, but have not yet been approved. In the FY 2007 ACE expenditure plan, U.S. Customs and Border Protection reports that it has spent about $1.7 billion on the program.

Status of ACE Implementation

According to CBP, as of July 2007:

Five increments are fully operational - ACE Foundation, Account Creation, Periodic Payment, Screening Foundation, and Targeting Foundation

One increment (e-Manifest: Trucks) has been deployed at 94 of the 99 truck land border ports

Three increments are at various stages of development and/or deployment - Entry Summary, Accounts, and Revenue (ESAR) A1 and A2; e-Manifest: Rail and Sea Manifest; and Advanced Targeting Capabilities

Using ACE to Support Other Applications

GAO states that DHS has completed its open recommendation to have future ACE expenditure plans specifically address any proposals or plans, whether tentative or approved, for extending and using ACE infrastructure to support other homeland security applications, including any impact on ACE of such proposals and plans.

GAO adds that together, the FY 2007 expenditure plan and the quarterly reports to Congress address ACE's relationships with other trade processing and DHS applications. For example, the plan discusses efforts to work with participating government agencies in defining and deploying the International Trade Data System (ITDS).

In addition, the quarterly reports to Congress cite coordination efforts with related homeland security programs. For example, the report for the first quarter of 2007 states that the:

Container Security Initiative (CSI) will be supported by e-Manifest for rail, air, and sea and cargo release, and certain screening capabilities (screening foundation, targeting foundation, advanced targeting);

Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) is coordinating with ACE Entry Summary, Accounts, and Revenue (ESAR) A1 capabilities to provide both CBP and trade representatives with the ability to view the status of CBP programs; and

U.S.-Mexico Border Partnership Plan will coordinate with ACE to implement any cargo screening standards derived from partnership plan agreements.

GAO contact- Randolph Hite (202) 512-3459

(See ITT's Online Archives or 10/30/07 news, 07103005, for BP summary of Part I, which highlights the three new recommendations that GAO made for the expenditure plan and the management of ACE.

See ITT's Online Archives or 11/20/06 news, 06112010, for Part I of BP's summary on the DHS Appropriations Act for FY 2007, which contains information on ACE.

See ITT's Online Archives or 08/29/07 news, 07082915, for BP summary of CBP posting its FY 2007 second quarter ACE report to Congress. See future issues of ITT for summary of the FY 2007 third quarter ACE report to Congress.)

GAO report, "Information Technology: Improvements for Acquisition of Customs Trade Processing System Continue, but Further Efforts Needed to Avoid More Cost and Schedule Shortfalls" (dated October 2007) available at http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d0846.pdf

CBP's report to Congress on ACE for the third quarter of FY 2007 (dated June 30, 2007) available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/toolbox/about/modernization/ace/quarterly_reports/ace_report_to_congress_062007.ctt/ace_report_to_congress_062007.pdf