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GAO: Border fence lagging, over budget--Home Security mismanaged project, report says
The Washington Times ^ | October 24, 2010 | Jerry Seper

Posted on 10/24/2010 5:11:29 PM PDT by jazusamo

The Department of Homeland Security has "largely defined but has not adequately implemented" controls over a "virtual fence" along the U.S.-Mexico border promised for completion in 2009 and, as a result, the multibillion-dollar project is behind schedule and over budget, a government report says.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), in a 63-page report released last week, said the department had failed to effectively manage the project, known as the Secure Border Initiative Network (SBInet), or give sufficient oversight to its prime contractor — resulting in costly rework and contributing to SBInets "well-chronicled history of not delivering promised capabilities and benefits on time and within budget."

The report said that in an effort to deliver SBInet on target and on schedule, Homeland Security officials had relied heavily on prime contractor Boeing, from which they regularly received "incomplete and anomalous" cost information.

As a result, the report said, the department not been able to gain "meaningful and proactive insight into potential cost and schedule performance shortfalls, and thus take corrective actions to avoid shortfalls in the future."

The data submitted by Boeing, according to the report, made the SBInet appear better that it actually was.

The report noted that during a 21-month period ending in February, Earned Value Management (EVM) reports submitted by Boeing to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) were not reliable because they contained misleading information, including the use of estimated rather than actual costs for subcontractor work. The report said that without reliable performance data, the true status of the SBInet program was unclear, limiting the department's ability to identify potential cost and schedule shortfalls.

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Government; Mexico; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aliens; borderfence; dhs; homelandsecurity; virtualfence
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1 posted on 10/24/2010 5:11:34 PM PDT by jazusamo
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To: jazusamo

To err is human. To FUBAR requires government intervention.


2 posted on 10/24/2010 5:19:15 PM PDT by Jim Robinson (Rebellion is brewing!! Just vote them OUT!!)
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To: jazusamo
I'm sure little Barry is very concerned about all this.

We have an ideologue in office with a worldview education that makes him unprepared for leadership.

The foreign occupier always puts his party before his country.

I say we impeach his butt starting in January.

Obamasalute-1sm

3 posted on 10/24/2010 5:20:54 PM PDT by BobP (The piss-stream media - Never to be watched again in my house)
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To: jazusamo

Why spend millions on a low tech fence of concrete, steel and barbed wire that works well and has no moving parts when you can waste billions on a high tech virtual fence that is practically worthless, doesn’t function very well, if at all, and requires intensive and expensive maintenance?

Beacause the politicians really don’t want to stop illegals - they just want to look like they are trying. And if in the process they can somehow award huge contracts that result in huge political contributions, all the better.


4 posted on 10/24/2010 5:25:21 PM PDT by Iron Munro (This is our culture; fight for it. This is our flag; pick it up. This is our country; take it back.)
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To: jazusamo

Nearly every single Department in the Federal Government is a virtual “mobius loop” of tax payer funded programs, follow-on studies that prove the original program is flawed, followed by even more misguided and ineffective spending, followed by even more studies. We have Federal regulations that serve no useful purpose other than to expand Government employment to supervise, implement, oversee and analyze to the point that the original purpose has been completely forgotten.

And the flood of illegals across the border continues nearly unabated, except that unemployment is higher in the US than in many parts of Mexico...


5 posted on 10/24/2010 5:25:21 PM PDT by Bean Counter (Self Defence is always appropriate.)
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To: Bean Counter

Good analogy. And endless loop of make-work studies to justify its own bloated existence, each requiring a new office and bureaucrats to staff it, all on the backs of taxpayers. Institutionalized government theft, plain and simple.


6 posted on 10/24/2010 5:32:44 PM PDT by SpaceBar
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To: jazusamo

No surprise at the mismanagement involved, sadly. I’m reminded of a (somewhat) similar high tech wonder system proposed back in the mid-1980s. I forget the name, but it was a system of sensors, surveillance balloons, etc. that was supposed to completely shut down drug trafficking along a section of the border. It was, of course, an abject failure. Nothing worked like it was supposed to, and pork barrel politics moved some of the equipment from the border to districts hundreds of miles away.


7 posted on 10/24/2010 5:35:25 PM PDT by DemforBush (You might think that, *I* could not possibly comment.)
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To: Jet Jaguar; NorwegianViking; ExTexasRedhead; HollyB; FromLori; EricTheRed_VocalMinority; ...

The list, ping

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list

http://www.nachumlist.com/


8 posted on 10/24/2010 5:37:56 PM PDT by Nachum (The complete Obama list at www.nachumlist.com)
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To: DemforBush
BTW, I humbly suggest that Emperor Hadrian might be the example to look to when it came to border security.


9 posted on 10/24/2010 5:38:57 PM PDT by DemforBush (You might think that, *I* could not possibly comment.)
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To: Iron Munro

Well said...A decent fence would stop the illegals or nearly so while the virtual fence is a joke.


10 posted on 10/24/2010 5:38:57 PM PDT by jazusamo (His [Obama's] political base---the young, the left and the thoughtless: Thomas Sowell)
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To: DemforBush

It’s great to detect it, but you have to have human beings to stop it.


11 posted on 10/24/2010 5:39:32 PM PDT by USNBandit (sarcasm engaged at all times)
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To: jazusamo

Even if they built the virtual fence, you know darned well that they’d just sit there and watch the illegals streaming over the border.

Perhaps if we could convince Muchelle that climbing over a fence would give the illegals much-need exercise, and slim them down. . . .


12 posted on 10/24/2010 5:41:10 PM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius.)
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To: Bean Counter

Amen! And then we have simple straightforward laws on illegals that are and have been ignored for years.


13 posted on 10/24/2010 5:42:30 PM PDT by jazusamo (His [Obama's] political base---the young, the left and the thoughtless: Thomas Sowell)
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To: BobP
I say we impeach his butt starting in January.

I'll second that! It may take a little longer, until enough Dems, that are left realize they'll be out of a job come the next election, to join Republicans and impeach his rear end.

14 posted on 10/24/2010 5:47:55 PM PDT by jazusamo (His [Obama's] political base---the young, the left and the thoughtless: Thomas Sowell)
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To: jazusamo
Please bump the Freepathon and donate or become a monthly donor!

15 posted on 10/24/2010 5:51:12 PM PDT by jazusamo (His [Obama's] political base---the young, the left and the thoughtless: Thomas Sowell)
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To: Jim Robinson

They cannot build a stupid fence, and now the want to create Gov’t Health Control
FUBAR


16 posted on 10/24/2010 5:55:43 PM PDT by Steven Tyler
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To: Iron Munro

Todd Palin, and his buddies, would have finished the fence months ago


17 posted on 10/24/2010 5:57:15 PM PDT by Steven Tyler
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To: BobP
"I say we impeach his butt starting in January."

Amen

18 posted on 10/24/2010 5:59:08 PM PDT by Jim Robinson (Rebellion is brewing!! Just vote them OUT!!)
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To: Steven Tyler
The government can't handle building a physical fence.
Something toddlers in sandboxes do all the time.

But the government intends to administrate health care.
One of the most personal, complicated and ever-changing services there is.

The government will utterly kill the health care industry
and charge us 10X its current cost to do it.

19 posted on 10/24/2010 6:12:13 PM PDT by TigersEye (Who crashed the markets on 9/28/08 and why?)
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To: jazusamo
Earned Value Management (EVM) reports submitted by Boeing to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) were not reliable because they contained misleading information

HAHAHAHAHA! FTTFL! ROTFL! If they were using Earned Value to track and control this project, then they wanted to be misled, because EVM is a bogus technique. For those of you not familiar with gov't project management, it's a way to report progress based on how many hours were put into the project. It's typically used where the deliverable is something intangible (like software), and the project management office is clueless about how to set meaningful milestones. So they just give the contractor progress credit for hours worked. And pay them based on x% worked...

Other freepers may know better than me - is this typical for gov't run construction projects?

20 posted on 10/24/2010 6:14:42 PM PDT by no-s (B.L.O.A.T. and every day...because some day soon they won't be making any more...for you.)
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