|  WASHINGTON (AP) -- The FBI faces a $56.7 million funding gap as it builds a new computer system to replace a problem-riddled database of investigation files, Justice Department auditors said Monday.
With careful oversight, the Sentinel program still could be successful, auditors from the department's inspector general's office concluded. Even so, the Bush administration's funding request for this year's share of the $425 million system, set for completion in 2009, falls short of what the bureau said it needs keep it on track.
The FBI asked for an estimated $150 million in the fiscal year that began October 1; the White House approved spending $100 million. Congress is not expected to approve the FBI's funding until next year.
A 112-page audit of the Sentinel system's progress "found that the FBI faces uncertainty" over how to meet the funding needs to continue building it.
Although the FBI expects to have about $50 million left over from earlier work on Sentinel and other bureau projects, auditors warned that pulling money from other programs "may have an adverse affect on the FBI's mission capabilities," the auditors said.
Responding, the FBI in a statement said the money needed "has long been identified from existing FBI balances, and will not impact operational programs."
The total cost for the computer program remains the same, the statement noted, adding that "at this time, Sentinel is within cost and schedule."
The funding concerns over Sentinel follow the FBI's decision last year to scrap a botched $170 million project to build a paperless case management system. FBI Director Robert Mueller abandoned the project, called Virtual Case File, after consultants said it was obsolete and riddled with problems.
Incoming Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont., questioning whether the funding gap would bring cuts to the FBI's counter-terrorism programs, said "mismanagement of this project seems to know no bounds."
"I remain seriously concerned about the handling of this project," Leahy said. "The American people cannot afford another fiasco."
Mueller is set to testify Wednesday at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on FBI oversight.
Sentinel is being built by Lockheed Martin contractors in four phases. Its designers currently are building an electronic records repository and a security network to limit its access.
|
