CBP Reports to Congress on ACE (GAO Recommendations)

This is Part III, the final part of a multi-part series of summaries on this report, and highlights CBP's efforts to address certain open recommendations by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

ACE Support for Other Homeland Security Applications

The GAO has recommended that CBP take appropriate steps to have future ACE expenditure plans specifically address proposals or plans to extend or use ACE infrastructure to support other homeland security applications.

CBP states that it has not planned any ACE expenditures that would enable ACE infrastructure (equipment such as hardware environments) to support other homeland security applications.

However, ACE program leadership is actively working to coordinate ACE with other homeland security applications, such as:

ACE Screening and Targeting (S&T) capabilities are being integrated with the Automated Targeting System (ATS).

ACE Entry Summary, Accounts, and Revenue (ESAR) A1 capabilities were to provide both CBP and trade representatives the ability to view the status of Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism (C-TPAT) program participation.

ACE is being coordinated with the U.S.-Mexico Border Partnership Plan and the Shared Border Accord Coordinating Committee, which is jointly sponsored by CBP and the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA).

CBP continues to coordinate with other federal agencies through International Trade Data System (ITDS).

Minimize Degree of Overlap and Concurrency Across ACE Releases

The GAO has recommended that CBP minimize the degree of overlap and concurrency across ongoing and future ACE releases. CBP should also capture and mitigate the associated risks of any residual concurrency.

CBP notes that past editions of this report have detailed CBP efforts to reduce the level of concurrent ACE development and mitigate the risk of remaining concurrent development efforts. Key elements of these efforts include the decoupling of S&T releases from ACE secure cargo management releases to reduce interdependencies between development efforts; the establishment of a comprehensive program management foundation for managing ACE requirements, cost, schedule, and performance; etc.

CBP has also taken the following actions to reduce potential contention for common resources across ACE releases (partial list):

ACE releases have been divided into smaller groups of capabilities or "drops."

Program managers have conducted extensive planning to ensure that development milestones eliminate contention for computer hardware environments needed for development, integration, testing, and training activities.

Reliable Data for ACE Accountability Framework

The GAO has recommended that CBP's ACE accountability framework ensure the establishment of reliable data relevant to measuring progress against commitments.

CBP states that although the ACE accountability framework does not report on the status of this recommendation, CBP's Office of Information and Technology (OIT) has undertaken several measures to establish reliable data. (See report for a list of previously-reported measures.)

Measurement of Program Management Improvement Efforts

The GAO has recommended that CBP define measures as well as collect and use associated metrics for determining whether prior and future program management improvements are successful.

OIT has implemented, and will continue to implement, multiple program management improvements. (See CBP's report for the four steps that CBP has taken regarding this recommendation and CBP's request that GAO consider closing this recommendation.)

(See ITT's Online Archives or 05/01/08 news, 08050105, for Part I of BP's summary on this ACE report, with information on cargo, ESAR, Edit Modification, etc. See ITT's Online Archives or 05/06/08 news, 08050615, for Part II, with information on S&T, etc.)

CBP's ACE quarterly report (including Appendices A-F) available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/trade/automated/modernization/ace/quarterly_reports/ace_rpt_dec_07/report_2008_q1.ctt/report_2008_q1.pdf.

Appendix G of quarterly report available at http://www.cbp.gov/linkhandler/cgov/trade/automated/modernization/ace/quarterly_reports/ace_rpt_dec_07/appendix_g.ctt/appendix_g.pdf.