Throwing money at technology
Published: 19 Oct 2004 16:15 BST
"In some instances, the directorates do not involve or apprise the DHS CIO of their individual IT projects or initiatives," according to a July report by the department's own Office of Inspector General. That could lead to a situation where directorates put their staff to work on programmes that directly contradict or interfere with initiatives laid down by the Department of Homeland Security's CIO, the report noted.
Intramural conflicts arise for reasons beyond organisation as well, such as the kind of internal politics and competition that characterise any enterprise inside the Washington Beltway. Federal sources say even Inspector General Clark Kent Ervin, charged with overseeing the Department of Homeland Security's operations, was initially pressured to limit the criticism in his office's reports.
Perhaps for reasons such as this, the American public appears cynical about the effectiveness of government programmes on homeland security in a nationwide survey conducted by ZDNet UK sister site CNET News.com and Harris Interactive. The poll, which surveyed more than 1,000 people in August, showed wide support for new technologies, such as eye and hand scanners. However, the survey found little faith in the government's ability to use the tools already at its disposal.
Nearly 53 percent of the respondents said the government was not doing enough to use technology to improve security, according to the ZDNet UK sister site CNET News.com-Harris Interactive Poll. A similar majority said they thought the government's technology initiatives to date either were having no effect or had made things less secure. About 45 percent said they believed that the government's technology initiatives on the security front were working.
"Money wasted on political projects means more effective uses are not being met," said Pete Sepp, vice-president of communications at the US National Taxpayers Union. "The political establishments of both parties agreed from the outset that virtually any effort to hold people accountable amounted to not worrying about national security."
Among those who should be called on to contribute, others say, are companies. As the threat of terrorism increasingly becomes a fact of life, domestic security can be viewed legitimately as a cost of doing business, along with such factors as worker safety and product liability.
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