GAO Hits CBP on Delays in Updating Foreign Port Risk Assessments
Not all components of the Department of Homeland Security have applied risk management principles to fully assess whether maritime security programs cover the riskiest ports, the Government Accountability Office said in a report released Sept. 27. DHS developed models to assess the risks of foreign ports and cargo, and the U.S. Coast Guard uses the model to inform operational decisions for its International Port Security (IPS) program and annually updates its assessment.
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But CBP "has not regularly assessed ports for risks to cargo under its Container Security Initiative (CSI) program," the report said. CBP's selection of the initial 23 CSI ports was primarily based on the volume of U.S.-bound containers, but beginning in 2003, CBP considered more threat information when it expanded the number of CSI ports. CBP has not assessed the risk posed by foreign ports that ship cargo to the United States for its CSI program since 2005, the report said.
CBP developed a model in 2009 that ranked 356 potential expansion ports for a related program on the basis of risk, but it was never implemented because of budget cuts, GAO said. By applying CBP's risk model to fiscal year 2012 cargo shipment data, GAO found that CSI did not have a presence at about half of the ports CBP considered high risk, and about one fifth of the existing CSI ports were at lower risk locations.
GAO acknowledged that because the CSI program depends on cooperation from sovereign host countries, there are challenges to implementing CSI in new foreign locations, and CBP's negotiations with other countries have not always succeeded. CBP officials said it's difficult to close CSI ports and open new ports because removing CSI from a country might negatively affect U.S. relations with the host government.
But GAO said that periodically assessing the risk level of cargo shipped from foreign ports and using the results to inform any future expansion of CSI to additional locations and determine whether changes need to be made to existing CSI ports would help ensure that CBP is allocating its resources to provide the best coverage of high-risk cargo to mitigate the risk of importing weapons of mass destruction or other terrorist contraband.
GAO recommends that CBP periodically assess the supply chain security risks from foreign ports, and DHS concurred with GAO's recommendation.