Border Agency’s Foiled Again

Dale Smith, www.blacklocks.ca
Management at the Canada Border Services Agency has still not streamlined its billion-dollar computer systems for monitoring cross-border traffic, says a federal review. The Auditor General said the agency has failed to complete an overall plan that avoids costly duplication.

“They continue to have issues that existed in 2013,” Auditor Michael Ferguson told reporters; “They were supposed to end up with one database in order to access all that information, but the system was delayed.”

The Agency’s computerized data files are used to track border crossings, fingerprint records for temporary residents, and other security issues. The auditor in a 2014 report said the Agency and RCMP did not have information required to gauge the effectiveness of security measures, despite combined spending of $728 million a year.

“It’s typical,” said New Democrat MP Malcolm Allen (Welland, Ont.). “It’s easy to say, ‘Yes, we agree’, but when it comes to doing the hard work of getting it done, they seem to fail nine times out of ten.”

Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney said he accepted the auditors’ review. “The report recognizes that Canada Border Services Agency is meeting its commitment on IT projects,” Blaney said.

In one case auditors noted the Agency spent $14.3 million on a computer system to monitor travellers, and $11.7 million on a separate database of commercial shipments, but failed to provide information on possible cost savings from using a single system, or explain how much it would cost to merge the two. “They had to get that information from multiple sources,” Auditor Ferguson told reporters.

Streamlining of information technology systems has still not taken place, Ferguson said: “For example, the information provided to senior committees tasked with overseeing the IT project portfolio did not contain accurate financial information, project status information or timelines.”

More than 14 million commercial shipments of all kinds cross the Canada-U.S. border each year, by official estimate. Cabinet in 2012 mandated a nine percent cut in the Agency’s budget over three years, the equivalent of $143.4 million.

Service cuts included the elimination of nineteen detector dog teams used since 1978 to sniff out narcotics and contraband; and the elimination of a 25-officer bureau assigned to intercept counterfeit banknotes under a Cross-Border Currency Program. The Customs & Immigration Union estimated cutbacks resulted in the loss of 1,350 jobs including front-line officers.