Report Faults TSA Risk Assessment

The Transportation Security Administration lacks the structure, policies and procedures to complete an effective risk management plan for freight and passenger transportation, according to a report by the Government Accountability Office.

Risk management is the security watchword at the Department of Homeland Security as it attempts to allocate money and other resources to the areas that are most vulnerable to a terrorist attack.

The GAO, which audits Executive Branch programs for Congress, said that TSA did not complete a six-step process established by DHS to properly identify and prioritize risks to the transportation system.

TSA collected threat, vulnerability and consequence information, but did not perform risk assessment that would integrate the three components for each mode, or the transportation system as a whole, the GAO said.

The GAO also said TSA set its security priorities based on intelligence, not risk assessment, and DHS did not review or validate TSA's methodology.

In addition, the GAO said that TSA lacked an organizational structure to direct and control its risk-management efforts, a way of evaluating performance, and policies and procedures to integrate with the overall DHS risk management plan.

The report can be found online at www.gao.gov/new.items/d09492.pdf .

Contact R.G. Edmonson at bedmonson@joc.com .