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search) a nnounced it is scrapping a $170 million computer overhaul after nearly f our years in the making. "If you can't get the simple things right and on time, what does that say about your ability to deal with the larger problem of defending the cou ntry against terrorists?"
search) project, which was built to create a massive, integrated so ftware system for agents to access and share case files and other resour ces. The agency's inspector general announced in February that the program jus t isn't capable of delivering.
search) u ltimately took responsibility for the debacle, even though he told congr essional members he blames, in part, the contractors who worked on the j ob and internal managers. "Our ability to handle a project like that was not what I thought it was, " Mueller told the House Appropriations Committee on March 8 "It's my f ault for not having put the appropriate persons in position to review th at contract and assure it was on track."
Virtual Case File is the last and largest of three phases in the FBI's "T rilogy" project, which was started before the Sept. The last component to replace the agency's antiquated investigative a pplications to allow agents to access and share case information was g reatly enhanced after the attacks. But after many fits and starts and despite hopes to get it on track, Virt ual Case File which critics say was a key element in addressing intell igence-sharing concerns outlined by the Sept.
search) still did not function three-and-a-half years after its genesis. "How do you get to the point where you spend three years on something as vital as this to national security only to figure out that it's not goin g to work?" "When you hear things like this it is just so di sheartening."
Members of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees say they are di sappointed that so much money was spent much of the $170 million was a n increase over initial projections with nothing to show for it, and v owed to keep closer tabs on the new project. "My disappointment with the extreme waste of taxpayer dollars over $100 million is surpassed only by my frustration over the fact that we now do not know when the FBI will have this critical case management system in place," said Sen. Judd Gregg, R-NH, chairman of the Senate Appropr iations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice and State, the Judiciary and R elated Agencies, which held the initial hearing on the FBI fiasco in Feb ruary. "Apoplectic would be too mild a description of my reaction to the unravel ing of the Trilogy project or the Tragedy project, as some FBI agents have taken to calling it," Sen. "Our highest priority must be to protect the America n people. To do its job effectively, the FBI must have state-of-the-art technology that works." In its defense, SAIC contractors told Congress the project suffered from constantly shifting mission changes, which SAIC attempted to keep up wit h, as well as an aggressive timetable to get the final phase operating. It was further hindered by a lack of consistency in management oversight within the bureau, a fact the FBI fully acknowledged hobbled SAIC's eff orts.
Association f or Competitive Technology, and a former owner of a small information tec hnology firm that designed pilot programs for system overhauls much like the FBI's, said the agency seemed to have jumped into this massive ende avor without prototypes that would have helped prevent the mess. "Unfortunately, if you go straight from design to implementation, where t hen is the logical point where you say this isn't really going to solve our problem?"
Citizens for Government Waste, which has documented several re cent aborted system overhauls in the federal government. "Some of them are difficult to put together, some are overly-ambitious an d many of them are poorly managed," he said. "The problem is more endemi c in government because of the lack of a bottom line and the lack of con cern in general about how much money is being spent, and the lack of acc ountability."
Heritage Foundation , said this proves the FBI "shouldn't be in charge of information-sharin g" among the intelligence community. However, Carafano said he believes this latest disaster shouldn't have a huge impact on the ability of the FBI to get urgent business done. There's information-sharing all ov er the FBI," he said. "A lot of it is by phone and fax and carrier pigeo n, but it's being done." Mueller told Congress that the agency is far from relying on carrier pige ons.
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