Summary

Beset by a host of management problems, the U.S. Customs Service is falling short in combatting unfair foreign trade practices and protecting the American public from unsafe goods. Customs is detecting only a fraction of the estimated violations in imported cargo and lacks information crucial to collecting applicable duties and penalizing violators of the trade laws. These shortcomings are traceable to fundamental management problems at Customs, including weaknesses in mission planning, information management, human resources management, performance measurement, and organizational structure. Collectively, these problems threaten Customs' move to wide-scale automation of import processing.

GAO found that: (1) Customs lacks effective detection of cargo that violates trade laws, information it needs to assess the effectiveness of duty, fee, and penalty collection programs; (2) Customs lacks a clear trade enforcement strategy, ineffectively uses its automated selectivity processes, develops inadequate information systems in support of trade enforcement and management oversight, and lacks critical data on programs aimed at trade law violators; (3) planning deficiencies and communication problems create continuing confusion among Customs managers on organizational priorities and the balancing of enforcement goals; (4) management information and accountability problems prevent Customs from effectively managing oversight operations, and management assessments are narrowly focused and untimely, and lack attention to corrective measures; (5) problems relating to effective management of information resources include narrowly focused planning efforts, development of deficient systems, and insufficient attention to effectiveness of information management practices; (6) improvement in information resources management depends on identifying user information needs, development of an information systems architecture, and greater attention to governmental guidance and procedure; (7) Customs has made limited progress in addressing human resources problems, including ineffective management processes, inadequate training, and frequent staff changes; (8) Customs' organizational structure ineffectively focuses managers' attention on the trade enforcement mission and emphasizes differences, rather than relationships in overall goals; and (9) Customs' lack of movement on inspection improvements, organizational structure improvements, and a plan to integrate electronic processing threatens attempts to modernize data processing operations.