United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office General Government Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 1998-08-14 monographic deposited born digital 9 p. GA 1.13:T-GGD-98-195 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-T-GGD-98-195 P0b002ee18037194a f:gg98195t DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-T-GGD-98-195 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-T-GGD-98-195 T-GGD-98-195 Customs administration Agency evaluation Strategic planning Personnel management Smuggling Drug trafficking Data integrity Human resources utilization Federal employees Inspection Los Angeles International Airport (CA) Long Beach (CA) John F. Kennedy International Airport (NY) Newark International Airport (NJ) Detroit (MI) Houston (TX) Los Angeles (CA) New York (NY) Testimony GGD Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed certain aspects of the Customs Service's inspectional personnel and its commercial cargo and passenger workloads, focusing on: (1) the implications of any differences between the cargo and passenger inspectional personnel levels at selected airports and seaports around the United States and those determined by Customs to be appropriate for these ports (assessed levels); and (2) any differences among the cargo and passenger processing workload-to-inspector ratios at the selected ports and the rationales for any significant differences in these ratios.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) it was not able to perform the requested analyses to identify the implications of differences between assessed and actual inspectional personnel levels because Customs does not have a systematic, agencywide process for assessing the need for inspectional personnel or allocating them to its commercial cargo ports; (2) Customs does not have these processes for its sea or land ports; (3) while Customs uses a quantitative model to determine the need for additional inspectional personnel to process air passenger, the model is not intended to establish the level at which airports should be staffed, according to Customs officials; (4) Customs has awarded a contract for the development of a resource allocation model; (5) upon delivery of the model, they will customize a process for using it to meet changing personnel needs and new initiatives; (6) Customs officials at the ports GAO visited told it that the current personnel levels, coupled with the use of overtime, have enabled these ports to meet Customs' performance standards for trade and passenger processing; (7) Customs also had performance standards for cargo examination--in fiscal year (FY) 1997, Customs expected its ports to examine 3.1 percent of all arriving cargo; (8) Customs reported that it inspected only 2.6 percent of arriving cargo in FY 1997; (9) GAO was also not able to perform the analyses to identify workload-to-inspector ratios and rationales for any differences in these ratios because it did not have a sufficient level of confidence in the quality of the workload data; (10) GAO identified significant discrepancies in the workload data it obtained from Customs headquarters, two Customs Management Centers, and three ports; (11) GAO could not obtain specific explanations for these discrepancies without Customs having to conduct extensive additional work; (12) GAO also did not identify any systematic controls over the quality of the data; (13) however, workload was only one of the several factors considered by Customs in the few assessments--which focused on its drug smuggling initiatives--completed since 1995 to determine its needs for additional inspectional personnel and allocate such personnel to ports; and (14) Customs also considered factors such as the threat of drug smuggling, budgetary constraints, and legislative limitations. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-T-GGD-98-195/html/GAOREPORTS-T-GGD-98-195.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-T-GGD-98-195/pdf/GAOREPORTS-T-GGD-98-195.pdf GAO/T-GGD-98-195 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-T-GGD-98-195 Testimony GAO/T-GGD-98-195; Customs Service: Inspectional Personnel and Workloads; Customs administration Agency evaluation Strategic planning Personnel management Smuggling Drug trafficking Data integrity Human resources utilization Federal employees Inspection Los Angeles International Airport (CA) Long Beach (CA) John F. Kennedy International Airport (NY) Newark International Airport (NJ) Detroit (MI) Houston (TX) Los Angeles (CA) New York (NY)