DHS Multi-Agency Operation Centers Would Benefit from Taking	 
Further Steps to Enhance Collaboration and Coordination 	 
(05-APR-07, GAO-07-686R).					 
                                                                 
This letter addresses the conference report to H.R. 5441 and	 
Senate Report 109-273, which directs GAO to (1) analyze the role 
of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) National Operations 
Center and DHS component operations centers and (2) make	 
recommendations regarding the operation and coordination of these
centers. On March 1 and 13, 2007, we met with House and Senate	 
Committee staff, respectively, to brief them on completed and	 
ongoing GAO work that addresses these issues. Both House and	 
Senate staff agreed that this information addresses the 	 
appropriations mandates and their related concerns regarding	 
DHS's operations centers. We primarily relied on a prior GAO	 
report on DHS multi-agency operations centers to satisfy these	 
mandates. In our completed review, we specifically examined (1)  
the missions, products, functions, and customers of the 	 
multi-agency DHS operations centers that operate 24 hours a day, 
7 days a week, and 365 days a year (24/7/365), and (2) DHS's	 
implementation of key practices for enhancing and sustaining	 
collaboration at these multi-agency centers. We also have work	 
underway that includes an assessment of DHS's plans for 	 
consolidating its real property holdings in the National Capital 
Region, including the National Operations Center and component	 
operations centers. This letter and the accompanying enclosure	 
transmit the information provided during those briefings to House
and Senate staff.						 
-------------------------Indexing Terms------------------------- 
REPORTNUM:   GAO-07-686R					        
    ACCNO:   A67884						        
  TITLE:     DHS Multi-Agency Operation Centers Would Benefit from    
Taking Further Steps to Enhance Collaboration and Coordination	 
     DATE:   04/05/2007 
  SUBJECT:   Agency missions					 
	     Counterterrorism					 
	     Federal agencies					 
	     Homeland security					 
	     Interagency relations				 
	     Program evaluation 				 
	     Strategic planning 				 

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GAO-07-686R

United States Government Accountability Office
Washington, DC 20548

April 5, 2007

The Honorable Robert C. Byrd
Chairman
The Honorable Thad Cochran
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Homeland Security
Committee on Appropriations
United States Senate

The Honorable David E. Price
Chairman
The Honorable Harold Rogers
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Homeland Security
Committee on Appropriations
House of Representatives

Subject: DHS Multi-Agency Operation Centers Would Benefit from Taking
Further Steps to Enhance Collaboration and Coordination

This letter addresses the conference report to H.R. 5441 and Senate Report
109-273, which directs GAO to (1) analyze the role of the Department of
Homeland Security (DHS) National Operations Center and DHS component
operations centers and (2) make recommendations regarding the operation
and coordination of these centers.^1 On March 1 and 13, 2007, we met with
House and Senate Committee staff, respectively, to brief them on completed
and ongoing GAO work that addresses these issues (see encl.). Both House
and Senate staff agreed that this information addresses the appropriations
mandates and their related concerns regarding DHS's operations centers.

We primarily relied on a prior GAO report on DHS multi-agency operations
centers to satisfy these mandates. In our completed review, we
specifically examined (1) the missions, products, functions, and customers
of the multi-agency DHS operations centers that operate 24 hours a day, 7
days a week, and 365 days a year (24/7/365), and (2) DHS's implementation
of key practices for enhancing and sustaining collaboration at these
multi-agency centers.^2 We also have work underway that includes an
assessment of DHS's plans for consolidating its real property holdings in
the National Capital Region, including the National Operations Center and
component operations centers. This letter and the accompanying enclosure
transmit the information provided during those briefings to House and
Senate staff.

^1 See H.R. Rep. No. 109-699, at 123 (2006) (Conf. Rep.) (accompanying
H.R. 5441, subsequently enacted into law as the Department of Homeland
Security Appropriations Act, 2007, Pub. L. No. 109-295, 120 Stat. 1355
(2006)). See also S. Rep. No. 109-273, at 18 (2006).

^2 GAO, Homeland Security: Opportunities Exist to Enhance Collaboration at
24/7 Operations Centers Staffed by Multiple DHS Agencies, GAO-07-89
(Washington, D.C.: Oct. 20, 2006).

To answer our first objective, we analyzed information obtained from the
responsible component agencies and DHS's Operations Directorate^3 on the
mission and functions of all of the 24/7/365 activities in DHS. Our work
identified a total of 20 national and 5 regional DHS centers that conduct
24/7/365 activities. Of these, 21 centers employ staff from only one DHS
agency on a regular full-time basis and perform agency-specific functions;
therefore, we did not perform a detailed analysis of the collaboration and
coordination practices at these centers and did not direct our
recommendations to them. The four multi-agency operations centers in DHS
that met the 24/7/365 criteria used in our study are the U.S. Customs and
Border Protection's Air and Marine Operations Center and National
Targeting Center, the Transportation Security Administration's
Transportation Security Operations Center, and the National Operations
Center-Interagency Watch (previously the Homeland Security Operations
Center). We visited all four multi-agency centers, as well as centers
operated by other component agencies,^4 to observe their operations,
interview officials responsible for managing the centers, and identify
centers that employed staff from multiple DHS agencies. From the four
multi-agency centers, we obtained additional information on both the
products the centers regularly developed and their primary customers. We
also interviewed several staff assigned to centers from participating DHS
component agencies--referred to as watchstanders--to discuss their roles
and responsibilities at the centers and the overall mission of the centers
to which they had been assigned.

To answer our second objective, we reviewed transition, management
integration, and planning and policy documents, as well as strategic
plans, annual performance reports, and planning documents from DHS and its
component agencies. We met with the acting director and other responsible
officials from the Operations Directorate to discuss its role and
responsibilities. We also reviewed and analyzed the results of studies
undertaken by DHS to assess and improve coordination and collaboration at
the multi-agency centers. We examined reports from GAO, the Congressional
Research Service, the DHS Office of Inspector General, and others that
addressed the integration, coordination, and collaboration of
departmentwide program functions. We then assessed DHS's efforts related
to integration, coordination, and collaboration at the multi-agency
centers to determine the extent to which they reflect DHS's application of
the key practices we have found to help enhance and sustain collaboration
among federal agencies and be at the center of successful mergers and
transformations.^5

We conducted our work from October 2005 through September 2006 in
accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.

Summary

The four multi-agency operations centers each have their own mission and
generate different products while performing some similar functions and
sharing a number of customers.

^3 DHS established the Operations Directorate in November 2005 to improve
operational efficiency and coordination.

^4These other components include the Federal Emergency Management Agency,
the U.S. Coast Guard, and the U.S. Secret Service.

^5 GAO, Results-Oriented Government: Practices That Can Help Enhance and
Sustain Collaboration among Federal Agencies, GAO-06-15 (Washington, D.C.:
Oct. 21, 2005).

           o The missions of the Air and Marine Operations Center, National
           Targeting Center, and Transportation Security Operations Center
           are distinctive and tactical, including such activities as
           monitoring the nation's airspace, including such activities as
           monitoring the nation's airspace, the movement of potential
           terrorists, and the passengers on commercial flights. The National
           Operations Center-Interagency Watch's mission is more strategic in
           that it collects information gathered by the other multi-agency
           operations centers and provides a national perspective on
           situational awareness for potential terrorist activity.

           o The products of the four multi-agency operations centers reflect
           their different missions and range from reports on suspicious
           private air and marine craft from the Air and Marine Operations
           Center, individuals entering the country at land, sea, and
           airports from the National Targeting Center, and individuals
           traveling on commercial flights from the Transportation Security
           Operations Center, to an overview of the national threat
           environment from the National Operations Center-Interagency Watch.

           o The multi-agency operations centers all share common functions
           such as maintaining situational awareness, sharing information,
           and communications; coordinating internal operations, and
           coordinating among federal, state, local, tribal, and
           private-sector entities; and managing incidents and making
           decisions. In addition, the Air and Marine Operations Center and
           National Operations Center-Interagency Watch conduct operational
           command and control and, along with the National Targeting Center,
           coordinate with foreign governments.

           o The four multi-agency operations centers' primary customers
           include other federal agencies, and state and local governments;
           private-sector entities; and some foreign governments.

DHS has leveraged its resources--one key collaborative practice--by having
staff from multiple agencies work together at the four operations centers.
However, DHS could further implement this and other relevant practices
previous GAO work has identified as important to enhancing and sustaining
collaboration among federal agencies and improving agency performance.
Without implementing these practices, DHS's operations centers may not be
collaborating as effectively as they could. Given that the collaboration
in multi-agency operations centers focuses on gathering and disseminating
information on real-time situational awareness related to disasters and
possible terrorist activity, it is important that the staff at the centers
achieve the most effective collaboration possible.

The following information outlines in more detail the extent to which
multi-agency centers have implemented the collaboration and coordination
practices we identified to enhance their effectiveness. Specifically, not
all of the components responsible for managing the operation centers have

           o established goals to define and articulate a common outcome and
           mutually reinforcing or joint strategies for collaboration
           (related to two of our key practices);
           o assessed staffing needs to leverage resources;
           o defined roles and responsibilities of watchstanders from
           agencies other than the managing one;
           o applied standards, policies, and procedures for DHS's
           information-sharing network to provide a means to operate across
           agency boundaries;
           o prepared mechanisms to monitor, evaluate, and report on results
           of the operations centers to reinforce collaborative efforts; and
           o reinforced agency accountability for collaboration efforts
           through agency plans and reports.

For example, some DHS components have established a variety of internal
and external working agreements, memorandums, and in the case of the Joint
Field Offices,^6 standard operating procedures. However, DHS's Operations
Directorate, which is responsible for coordinating operations, had not
provided guidance on how and when such agreements should be used to
improve collaboration among the sponsoring and participating components at
the operations centers we reviewed. Nor had any of these centers
documented goals or joint strategies using these or other types of
agreements. Without having a documented joint strategy for collaboration,
there is a risk that center staff monitoring potential terrorist
activities may not operate in the most collaborative manner.

DHS had also not assessed staffing needs to leverage resources and help
ensure that there are enough watchstanders, who occupy the primary
positions at the multi-agency operations centers, to conduct surveillance
activities. While three of the four multi-agency operations centers had
developed descriptions for the watchstander position staffed by their own
agency, only one center--the Air and Marine Operations Center--had also
developed a position description for staff assigned to the center from
another DHS agency. The other centers relied on the components providing
staff to define their watchstanders' roles and responsibilities. Lack of a
consistent definition for the watchstander position may lead to people at
the same center in the same role performing the same responsibilities
differently or not at all. Because of the potentially critical,
time-sensitive need for decisive action at 24/7/365 operations centers, it
is important that the roles and responsibilities of watchstanders are
described and understood by both the staff and the officials responsible
for managing the operations centers.

In another example, DHS had not provided the standards, policies, and
procedures for the use of its Homeland Security Information Network, its
primary information-sharing tool. Without the application of the
standards, policies, and procedures, users were unsure of how to use the
network and, therefore, did not maximize the operation centers' capacity
for sharing security-related information.

In terms of monitoring, evaluating, and reporting the results of joint
efforts at the multi-agency operations centers, in January 2004, the Air
and Marine Operations Center began collecting data to measure
productivity, but had not yet evaluated efforts, and the rest of the
multi- agency centers have not developed any methods for evaluating and
reporting results.

Finally, neither DHS nor the multi-agency operations centers have
reinforced accountability for collaborative efforts through joint agency
planning and reporting. Such public accounting through published strategic
and annual performance plans and reports makes agencies answerable for
collaboration results.

The Operations Directorate, established in November 2005 to improve
operational efficiency and coordination, provides DHS with an opportunity
to more fully implement the key practices that are important to enhancing
and sustaining collaboration at its multi-agency operations centers.
Although the Operations Directorate does not possess administrative,
budgetary, or operational control over the other component's operations
centers, guidance from the Operations Directorate could help the other
components responsible for the 24/7/365 multi-agency operations centers
make key advances in each collaborative practice.

^6 The JFO is a temporary federal multi-agency coordination center
established locally to facilitate field-level domestic incident management
activities related to prevention, preparedness, response and recovery.

To enhance collaboration at 24/7/365 operations centers staffed by
multiple components, we recommended that the Director of the Operations
Directorate should develop and provide guidance as well as help to ensure
the component agencies take the following six actions:

           o define common goals and joint strategies;

           o conduct staffing needs assessments;

           o clarify the roles and responsibilities of staff known as
           watchstanders;

           o implement standards, policies, and procedures for using DHS's
           information network to provide a means of operating across agency
           boundaries;

           o implement mechanisms to monitor, evaluate, and report on the
           results of collaborative efforts; and

           o address collaborative efforts at the four multi-agency
           operations centers in plans and reports.

In reviewing a draft of the report in 2006, DHS agreed with the
recommended actions to enhance collaboration at the DHS multi-agency
operations centers. Among other things, DHS noted plans to conduct an
independent study in September 2006, to leverage technical and analytical
expertise to support expanding the capabilities of the Operations
Directorate. In addition, DHS said it planned to move elements of the
National Operations Center to the Transportation Security Operations
Center (TSOC) in 2007 and, ultimately to collocate the DHS headquarters,
and all the DHS component headquarters along with their respective staffs
and operations centers, at one location. Since our report was issued, DHS
has taken additional steps toward these objectives. We agreed that these
leadership efforts provided by the Operations Directorate could further
enhance collaboration among DHS's component agencies, along with the key
practices suggested by our review of collaboration practices among
agencies across the federal government.

If your office or staff has any questions concerning this report, please
contact me at (202) 512-6510 or by e-mail at [email protected] .

Eileen Larence
Director, Homeland Security and Justice Issues

Enclosure

Enclosure: Briefing Slides

(440579)

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