CBP Must Improve Wait Time Data, Transparency for Performance Measures and Processes, GAO Report Says
Improvements can be made to CBP’s infrastructure and staff needs, as well as to the transparency of its staff allocation processes, a report on commercial vehicle wait times by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) said. For the report, released July 24, GAO was asked to examine the reliability of CBP wait time data, visit six U.S.-Mexico land border crossings and analyze CBP documentation. The GAO analysis was intended to help CBP officials implement the agency’s existing mechanisms to improve the data’s overall usefulness and reduce the current burden of manually collecting data, GAO said.
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GAO found that CBP’s data on lane use “generally supported agency views on the extent to which CBP opens lanes” at the six crossings visited. GAO’s analysis of lane use and traffic volume also supported CBP’s statement that they open and close primary inspection lanes depending on the fluctuating volume of commercial traffic. CBP data also identified a need for 3,811 more officers and additional staff at southwest border ports, but said that three of the six ports that GAO visited were sufficiently staffed.
CBP human capital officials said they adjust staffing across locations to ensure that staff levels match areas of greatest need. However, this process is not documented and there is no guidance for the methodology used or factors considered. GAO said that documentation, consistent with internal control standards, would make the process more transparent and help ensure effective allocation of staff as needed.
Currently, CBP does not have outcome-oriented performance measures to determine the extent to which the agency is facilitating trade, something the Office of Management and GAO recommended CBP do to improve accountability for results. GAO also recommended that CBP identify and carry out steps to ensure consistent implementation of existing wait time estimation methods. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agreed and said that “CBP has a goal to automate the estimation and reporting of border wait times.” DHS also said “they plan to establish an internal and external stakeholder group and identify the best candidate technologies to pilot.”
In addition, GAO recommended assessing the “feasibility of replacing current methods of manually collecting wait times with automated methods" as well as options for publicly reporting the results. To improve transparency and performance accountability for trade facilitation, while meeting CBP’s goals of balancing trade and security missions, GAO recommended outcome-oriented performance measures or proxy measures to “capture the impact of CBP’s trade facilitation efforts.” DHS also agreed with this fourth recommendation, and said they planned to collaborate with private sector entities to “identify metrics of greatest concern.”