Summary
U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is responsible for ensuring the security of cargo containers shipped into the United States. To strike a balance between security and commerce, CBP oversees the Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, or C-TPAT program. As part of this program, CBP aims to secure the supply chain--the flow of goods from manufacturers to retailers--through partnerships with international trade companies. Member companies agree to allow CBP to validate their security practices and, in exchange, they are awarded benefits, such as reduced scrutiny of their cargo. In 2005, GAO reviewed the C-TPAT program and noted operational challenges. For this report, GAO was asked to assess the progress CBP has made since 2005 in (1) improving its benefit award policies for C-TPAT members, (2) addressing challenges in validating members' security practices, and (3) addressing management and staffing challenges. To perform this work, GAO analyzed a nonprobability sample of completed validations; reviewed annual, human capital, and strategic plans; and held discussions with CBP officials.
CBP has strengthened its policies for granting benefits to importers, C-TPAT's largest member sector, and is working to improve its policies for members in other trade sectors. For example, starting in March 2005, CBP began requiring members in 9 out of the 10 trade sectors to meet minimum security criteria and it plans to finalize criteria for the tenth trade sector by mid-2008. CBP has also introduced a process that awards benefits for C-TPAT importers on a three-tiered basis, depending on validation of their security practices. CBP officials told us that they interpret the benefit tiering provisions of the Security and Accountability for Every Port Act of 2006 to apply mainly to importers. Nevertheless, CBP considered implementing tiered benefits for these other trade sectors, but it has not been able to identify additional benefits to offer nonimporters in a tiered structure. CBP has taken steps to improve the security validation process, but still faces challenges in verifying that C-TPAT members' security practices meet minimum criteria. CBP has sought to strengthen the validation process by providing appropriate guidance and developing a portable, electronic instrument to help ensure that validation information is consistently collected, documented, and uniformly applied to decisions regarding the awarding of benefits to C-TPAT members. However, the usefulness of the instrument is limited due to its default "no" responses. Specifically, if a response is marked "no," it is unclear whether a security specialist, who has the discretion to answer or not answer individual questions, intentionally answered the question or if the response was an automatic default. This factor limits the ability of CBP to validate security practices at member companies. CBP has taken actions to address C-TPAT management and staffing challenges, such as implementing a human capital plan, a records management system, and performance measures. While these actions have addressed a number of challenges, others remain. In particular, CBP's records management system does not include interim processing dates--such as the date that security specialists send companies the 30-day validation notification letter--to enable management or others to determine CBP's compliance with program requirements. Further, although CBP has developed performance measures for facilitating the flow of commerce, it has not developed performance measures to assess the effectiveness of C-TPAT's efforts to improve supply chain security.
Recommendations
Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change
from "In process" to "Implemented" or "Not implemented" based on our follow up work.
Director:
Team:
Phone:
Stephen L. Caldwell
Government Accountability Office: Homeland Security and Justice
(202) 512-9610
Recommendations for Executive Action
Recommendation: To improve CBP's implementation of SAFE Port Act provisions and to strengthen C-TPAT program management, ensure adequate internal controls to manage the program, provide management with complete program data for decision making, and establish indicators of the program's impact on supply chain security, the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to continue to improve the consistency with which validations are conducted and documented by revising the electronic instrument used in validations to include appropriate response options and eliminate the use of default "no" responses.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To improve CBP's implementation of SAFE Port Act provisions and to strengthen C-TPAT program management, ensure adequate internal controls to manage the program, provide management with complete program data for decision making, and establish indicators of the program's impact on supply chain security, the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to strengthen the evaluation of security during validations by requiring validations to include the review and assessment of any available results from audits, inspections, or other reviews of a member's supply chain security.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To improve CBP's implementation of SAFE Port Act provisions and to strengthen C-TPAT program management, ensure adequate internal controls to manage the program, provide management with complete program data for decision making, and establish indicators of the program's impact on supply chain security, the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to ensure that C-TPAT validation report recommendations are implemented by establishing a policy for security specialists to follow up with member companies when CBP requires them to make security enhancements to ensure that the necessary steps are taken.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To improve CBP's implementation of SAFE Port Act provisions and to strengthen C-TPAT program management, ensure adequate internal controls to manage the program, provide management with complete program data for decision making, and establish indicators of the program's impact on supply chain security, the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to ensure that the C-TPAT Portal records management system completely documents key data elements needed to track compliance with SAFE Port Act and other CBP internal requirements.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
Recommendation: To improve CBP's implementation of SAFE Port Act provisions and to strengthen C-TPAT program management, ensure adequate internal controls to manage the program, provide management with complete program data for decision making, and establish indicators of the program's impact on supply chain security, the Secretary of Homeland Security should direct the Commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection to identify and pursue opportunities in information collected during C-TPAT member processing activities that may provide direction for developing performance measures of enhanced supply chain security.
Agency Affected: Department of Homeland Security
Status: In process
Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.
