Report says anti-terrorist program falls short

WASHINGTON – An ambitious government initiative designed to keep terrorists from entering the country could waste money and miss deadlines because officials have not adequately managed it, the Government Accountability Office said Wednesday.

The report said officials in charge of the US-VISIT program have made some headway, including the hiring of Accenture Ltd., a global management consulting firm, as the lead contractor on the project. But in findings that echo other GAO reports in recent years, the new report said program managers still have not hired enough government employees to run it, have not demonstrated how their computers, networks and databases will work effectively together, and have not sorted out how they will coordinate activities with a huge border screening program run by the agencies in charge of customs.

Only 59 of 115 government positions were filled as of October, and 88 of 117 contractor jobs were filled as of November, the report said.