For Immediate Release
July 27, 2005
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Washington D.C.
FBI National Press Office
(202) 324-3691
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PRESS
RESPONSE REGARDING OIG AUDIT ON LANGUAGE SERVICES
Washington , D.C.- The
FBI responded today to the release of the Inspector General's (OIG) Report: The
Federal Bureau of Investigation's Foreign Language Translation Program Follow-up
Audit Report.
The FBI appreciates the
Office of the Inspector General's continued interest in the development of
our Foreign Language Program and the oversight the office provides. The OIG
audit found that "the FBI has taken important steps to address the OIG's
recommendations and has made progress in improving the operations of the
Foreign Language Program." The OIG commented on the improvements to
our program, to include the finding that "none of the counterterrorism
audio backlog as of March 2005 was in the highest priority cases." Further,
the OIG noted that as of the end of March, with six months left in the Fiscal
Year, the FBI had "achieved 56 percent of current hiring goals." The
report also found that the FBI has "begun to identify counterterrorism
cases with significant backlog"; and, "has addressed digital collection
system storage limitations." The FBI has made steady progress in implementing
the OIG's recommendations and welcomes constructive feedback that can lead
to further improvements in our ability to serve the nation.
The OIG's audit expressed
concerns about a continuing amount of unreviewed material and instances where "high
priority" material was not reviewed within 24 hours, as called for by
our internal goals. As noted by the audit, however, there are no backlogs
in our highest priority cases; moreover, those materials not reviewed within
24 hours are reviewed in a manner consistent with the national security threats
they implicate.
The report places our
backlog in the context of both increased workload and priorities. The FBI
reviews, translates and processes material based on continually reevaluated
and carefully managed priorities, in the face of increasing workloads. O
ur prioritization system is working. ‘High priority' materials are
evaluated against a tiered prioritization process, with concurrence of the
Intelligence Community, which targets the highest national security priorities.
The OIG's report illustrates that there are no backlogs in our highest priority
cases, and that the backlogs we do have represent approximately 1.5 percent
of all counterterrorism audio collected. These findings show that the FBI
is efficiently managing against our priorities with limited resources.
We are committed to providing
quality translation, interpretation, and language analysis services, both
within the FBI and to the Intelligence Community. We recognize that a strong
foreign language capacity is essential to our national security mission.
Since 9/11, the FBI has made enormous strides in enhancing our language program
capabilities, and we will continue to improve the efficiency and effectiveness
of our Foreign Language Program in its growth and evolution to meet our nation's
security needs.
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