Information Technology

Early Releases of Customs Trade System Operating, but Pattern of Cost and Schedule Problems Needs to Be Addressed Gao ID: GAO-04-719 May 14, 2004

The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is conducting a multiyear, multibillion-dollar acquisition of a new trade processing system planned to support the movement of legitimate imports and exports and strengthen border security. By congressional mandate, expenditure plans for this system, called the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), must meet certain conditions, including GAO review. This study addresses the extent to which the latest plan, for fiscal year 2004, satisfies these conditions, provides information about DHS's efforts to implement GAO's recommendations for improving ACE management, and makes observations about ACE.

The DHS fiscal year 2004 ACE expenditure plan provides for certain activities, including system implementation infrastructure and support, operations and maintenance, and the definition and design of two future releases. This plan, including related program documentation and program officials' statements, largely satisfies the legislative conditions imposed by the Congress. Some of the recommendations that GAO has previously made to strengthen ACE management have been addressed, and DHS has committed to addressing those that remain. However, much remains to be done before these recommendations are fully implemented. Specifically, progress on overcoming human capital challenges has been slow. GAO made several observations about ACE. Specifically, the first two ACE releases, which have been deployed, are operating largely as intended. However, achieving this initial operating capability has been difficult. DHS has established a pattern of borrowing resources from future releases to address problems of near-term releases, which has adversely affected the cost, schedule, and capability commitments of ongoing releases. In particular, the delay in completing the second ACE release has introduced a pattern of increased reliance on concurrent activities to meet the dictated schedule, continued release schedule delays, and cost overruns for the ongoing release. This domino effect is continuing into Release 3 and beyond. This pattern is not likely to change unless the degree of concurrence among activities within and between releases is better controlled, which will require that the reasons for release quality problems that led to the concurrent activity be addressed. Until the reasons for this pattern are pinpointed and corrected, in part through implementation of GAO's unaddressed recommendations, DHS will not be positioned to deliver promised capabilities on time and within budget, or produce mission value commensurate with investment cost.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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GAO-04-719, Information Technology: Early Releases of Customs Trade System Operating, but Pattern of Cost and Schedule Problems Needs to Be Addressed This is the accessible text file for GAO report number GAO-04-719 entitled 'Information Technology: Early Releases of Customs Trade System Operating, but Pattern of Cost and Schedule Problems Needs to Be Addressed' which was released on May 14, 2004. This text file was formatted by the U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) to be accessible to users with visual impairments, as part of a longer term project to improve GAO products' accessibility. Every attempt has been made to maintain the structural and data integrity of the original printed product. Accessibility features, such as text descriptions of tables, consecutively numbered footnotes placed at the end of the file, and the text of agency comment letters, are provided but may not exactly duplicate the presentation or format of the printed version. The portable document format (PDF) file is an exact electronic replica of the printed version. We welcome your feedback. Please E-mail your comments regarding the contents or accessibility features of this document to Webmaster@gao.gov. This is a work of the U.S. government and is not subject to copyright protection in the United States. It may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without further permission from GAO. Because this work may contain copyrighted images or other material, permission from the copyright holder may be necessary if you wish to reproduce this material separately. Report to Congressional Committees: May 2004: INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY: Early Releases of Customs Trade System Operating, but Pattern of Cost and Schedule Problems Needs to Be Addressed: [Hyperlink, http: //www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-719]: GAO Highlights: Highlights of GAO-04-719, a report to the Subcommittees on Homeland Security, Senate and House Committees on Appropriations Why GAO Did This Study: The Department of Homeland Security‘s (DHS) Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is conducting a multiyear, multibillion-dollar acquisition of a new trade processing system planned to support the movement of legitimate imports and exports and strengthen border security. By congressional mandate, expenditure plans for this system, called the Automated Commercial Environment (ACE), must meet certain conditions, including GAO review. This study addresses the extent to which the latest plan, for fiscal year 2004, satisfies these conditions, provides information about DHS‘s efforts to implement GAO‘s recommendations for improving ACE management, and makes observations about ACE. What GAO Found: The DHS fiscal year 2004 ACE expenditure plan provides for certain activities, including system implementation infrastructure and support, operations and maintenance, and the definition and design of two future releases. This plan, including related program documentation and program officials‘ statements, largely satisfies the legislative conditions imposed by the Congress. Some of the recommendations that GAO has previously made to strengthen ACE management have been addressed, and DHS has committed to addressing those that remain. However, much remains to be done before these recommendations are fully implemented. Specifically, progress on overcoming human capital challenges has been slow. GAO made several observations about ACE. Specifically, the first two ACE releases, which have been deployed, are operating largely as intended. However, achieving this initial operating capability has been difficult. DHS has established a pattern of borrowing resources from future releases to address problems of near-term releases, which has adversely affected the cost, schedule, and capability commitments of ongoing releases. In particular, the delay in completing the second ACE release has introduced a pattern of increased reliance on concurrent activities to meet the dictated schedule, continued release schedule delays, and cost overruns for the ongoing releases, as the figure below indicates. This domino effect is continuing into Release 3 and beyond. This pattern is not likely to change unless the degree of concurrence among activities within and between releases is better controlled, which will require that the reasons for release quality problems that led to the concurrent activity be addressed. Until the reasons for this pattern are pinpointed and corrected, in part through implementation of GAO‘s unaddressed recommendations, DHS will not be positioned to deliver promised capabilities on time and within budget, or produce mission value commensurate with investment cost. What GAO Recommends: To assist DHS in managing ACE and increasing the chances that future releases will deliver promised capabilities on time and within budget, GAO is making recommendations to the Secretary of Homeland Security aimed at addressing recurring cost and schedule problems. DHS concurred with GAO‘s recommendations and described specific actions that it is taking to respond to each. www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-04-719 To view the full product, including the scope and methodology, click on the link above. For more information, contact Randolph C. Hite at (202) 512-3439 or hiter@gao.gov. [End of section] Contents: Letter: Compliance with Legislative Conditions: Status of Open Recommendations: Observations on Management of ACE: Conclusions: Recommendations for Executive Action: Agency Comments and Our Evaluation: Appendixes: Appendix I: IT: Early Releases of Customs Trade System Operating, but Pattern of Cost and Schedule Problems Needs to be Addressed: Appendix II: Comments from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security: Appendix III: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments: GAO Contact: Staff Acknowledgments: ACE: Automated Commercial Environment: CBP: Customs and Border Protection: CBPMO: Customs and Border Protection Modernization Office: DHS: Department of Homeland Security: IDIQ: indefinite delivery/indefinite quantity: ITDS: International Trade Data System: IV&V: independent verification and validation: I2V2: integrated independent verification and validation: OIG: Office of Inspector General: OMB: Office of Management and Budget: PTR: program trouble report: SA-CMM: Software Acquisition Capability Maturity Model: SAT: system acceptance test: SEI: Software Engineering Institute: SIT: system integration test: SWIT: software integration test: UAT: user acceptance test: US-VISIT: United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology: Letter May 13, 2004: The Honorable Thad Cochran: Chairman: The Honorable Robert C. Byrd: Ranking Minority Member: Subcommittee on Homeland Security: Committee on Appropriations: United States Senate: The Honorable Harold Rogers: Chairman: The Honorable Martin Olav Sabo: Ranking Minority Member: Subcommittee on Homeland Security: Committee on Appropriations: House of Representatives: In January 2004, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) submitted to the Congress its fiscal year 2004 expenditure plan, seeking release of $318.7 million for its Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) program. ACE is to be CBP's new trade system. The program's goals include facilitating the movement of legitimate trade through more effective trade account management and strengthening border security by identifying import and export transactions that have an elevated risk of posing a threat to the United States. As required by CBP's fiscal year 2004 appropriations,[Footnote 1] we reviewed the expenditure plan. Our objectives were to (1) determine whether the ACE fiscal year 2004 expenditure plan satisfies certain legislative conditions, (2) determine the status of our open ACE recommendations, and (3) provide any other observations about the expenditure plan and DHS's management of the ACE program. On March 8, 2004, we briefed your offices on the results of this review. This report transmits the results of our work. The full briefing, including our scope and methodology, is reprinted as appendix I. Compliance with Legislative Conditions: The expenditure plan satisfied or partially satisfied the conditions specified in DHS's appropriations act. Specifically, the plan, including related program documentation and program officials' statements, satisfied or provided for satisfying all key aspects of (1) meeting the capital planning and investment control review requirements of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), (2) complying with the DHS enterprise architecture,[Footnote 2] and (3) review and approval by DHS and OMB. The plan partially satisfied the condition that specifies compliance with the acquisition rules, requirements, guidelines, and systems acquisition management practices of the federal government.[Footnote 3] Status of Open Recommendations: CBP is making progress in addressing our open recommendations. Each recommendation, along with the status of CBP's actions to address it, is summarized below. * Before building each ACE release (i.e., beginning detailed design and development), certify to Customs' House and Senate appropriations subcommittees that the enterprise architecture has been sufficiently extended to provide the requisite enterprise design content, and has been updated to ensure consistency and integration across business areas. With respect to the fiscal year 2004 expenditure plan, CBP has completed action to implement this recommendation by using a process developed by the former Customs Service to certify ACE releases against the former Customs enterprise architecture. Further, DHS is developing a process to ensure alignment of ACE with the departmentwide enterprise architecture it is developing to replace DHS component agency and bureau architectures. * Develop and implement a rigorous and analytically verifiable cost- estimating program that embodied the tenets of effective estimating as defined in the Software Engineering Institute's (SEI) institutional and project-specific estimating guidance.[Footnote 4] CBP is in the process of implementing this recommendation. It has developed and begun to implement a cost-estimating program that embodies SEI's models. For example, CBP hired a contractor to define and implement a cost-estimating program and develop independent cost estimates. Additionally, it has defined and documented processes for estimating expenditure plan costs, and tasked contractors with ensuring that expenditure plan estimates are evaluated against SEI criteria for validating software cost and schedule estimates. * Immediately develop and implement a human capital management strategy that provides both near-and long-term solutions to program office human capital capacity limitations, and report quarterly to the appropriations committees on the progress of efforts to do so. These efforts should include defining the office's skill and capability needs in terms that will allow the program office to attract qualified individuals and that will provide sufficient rewards and training, linked to performance, to promote their retention. CBP is in the process of implementing this recommendation, and it has reported on these actions to the Congress. In particular, the program office developed and began implementing a human capital management plan that called for addressing several areas, including filling vacant positions. However, the program office has continued to experience difficulty in filling key positions and has begun implementing a new staffing plan intended to address DHS's concern that the program office has insufficient government program management staff. * Develop and implement process controls for SEI's Software Acquisition Capability Maturity Model (SA-CMM[Footnote 5]) level 2 key process areas and for the level 3 acquisition risk management key process area; develop and implement each of the missing SA-CMM key practices for these key process areas, and until this is accomplished, report to the appropriations committees quarterly on the progress of efforts to do so. CBP has implemented this recommendation. In November 2003, SEI assigned the program a level 2 rating, meaning that the program had established basic acquisition management processes. Further, CBP had addressed the two weaknesses SEI identified in the level 3 acquisition risk management area, and has reported to the Congress on the status of its acquisition management improvement activities. * Establish an independent verification and validation (IV&V) function to assist CBP in overseeing contractor efforts, such as testing.[Footnote 6] CBP is in the process of implementing this recommendation. The program office has established an IV&V function and has designated its IV&V contractor. However, program documentation describes roles for the IV&V contractor that are so integral to ACE development, testing, and deployment, as well as to ACE program management, that they raise questions about how the contractor could also perform independent ACE- related assessments. CBP officials stated that they plan to address this situation. * Have future ACE expenditure plans specifically address any proposals or plans, whether tentative or approved, for extending and using ACE infrastructure to support other homeland security applications, including any impact on ACE of such proposals and plans. CBP plans to implement this recommendation. Program officials acknowledged the potential for ACE infrastructure to support other DHS system applications and the potential for integrating ACE data and applications with those systems. According to program officials, to begin preparing for this potential, they have focused initially on discussing collaboration opportunities with DHS's United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program.[Footnote 7] Observations on Management of ACE: We recognize accomplishments to date, including the deployment of the first 2 of 10 planned ACE releases, and address the need for rigorous and disciplined program management practices relating to managing ACE's costs, schedule, and requirements, as well as the degree of concurrent system development activities. An overview of the observations follows: * Release 1 and 2 testing revealed a sufficient volume and significance of system defects to affect schedule commitments. Release 1 testing revealed system defects, which were corrected about 3 months after the testing was concluded. Release 2 testing revealed more system defects than expected; addressing these defects required more time than originally planned for Release 2 testing. * Requirements planned for Releases 1 and 2 have been deferred to later releases. Releases 1 and 2 were originally planned as a single release that would satisfy 465 requirements. Subsequently, 103 of these requirements, which included capabilities related to document management, data recovery, and security, were deferred to Releases 3 and 4, and 14 were deferred to later releases, for a total of 117 deferred requirements. * Release 2 delays have set in motion a pattern of increased reliance on concurrent activities, continued release delays, and cost overruns. The time required to resolve defects resulted in overlap of Release 2 test phases. Delays in completing Release 2 increased its overlap with Release 3 and have contributed to Release 3 delays. Likewise, Release 3 delays will increase overlap with Release 4 and could cause Release 4 delays. Finally, the increased concurrency and schedule delays resulted in Releases 1 through 4 costing more than planned.[Footnote 8] * Releases 1 and 2 are largely operating according to adjusted requirements, defect density has stabilized, and the system is mostly up and running when needed. Defects prevalent in Releases 1 and 2 have stabilized, but nontrivial defects remain. Releases 1 and 2, however, are mostly available when needed. * Following problems with Release 1, steps were taken to avoid future problems, but the success of these actions is unclear. As a result of Release 1 cost overruns and schedule delays, CBP directed its contractor to develop and implement a plan to improve program performance. The objective of this plan was to demonstrate serious, tangible, and measurable actions to resolve program issues. However, program officials could not point to metrics that demonstrated improved performance, and the cost to develop and implement the corrective action plan is unknown. * Initial releases represent a small fraction of the total ACE software. Releases 1, 2, 3, and 4 account for only about 14 percent of ACE software and are to be designed, developed, and deployed within about 3 years. In contrast, the remaining six ACE releases constitute 86 percent of ACE software but are to be designed, developed, and deployed within about 3-1/2 years. CBP officials stated that they are currently studying the extent to which off-the-shelf software can be employed in the remaining six releases. * The reliability of key cost estimates in the expenditure plan is unclear. The cost estimates in the expenditure plan varied from independent cost estimates, and the derivation of the expenditure plan estimates only partially satisfied SEI guidance for assessing the effectiveness of processes used to derive cost estimates. Conclusions: The fiscal year 2004 ACE expenditure plan, along with program documentation and officials' commitments, largely satisfies the legislative conditions imposed by the Congress. Further, many of the recommendations that we have made to strengthen ACE management have been addressed, and CBP leadership has committed to addressing those that remain. However, much must still be done before these recommendations are fully implemented. Particularly, progress has been slow on overcoming human capital challenges. To CBP's credit, the first two ACE releases are operating largely as intended. Achieving this initial operating capability, however, has not occurred without difficulty, such as borrowing resources from future releases to overcome problems on near-term releases; similar difficulties that could affect cost, schedule, and capability commitments are being experienced on ongoing releases. This pattern is not likely to change unless the degree of concurrency among activities within and between releases is better controlled, and the underlying reasons for introducing this concurrency are addressed. While time and resources were invested in management improvements over a year ago to address root causes, the absence of meaningful measures for determining whether these investments will be successful, coupled with limited progress on some of our previous recommendations, makes CBP's chances of delivering future ACE release capabilities on time and within budget uncertain at best. Recommendations for Executive Action: To assist CBP in managing ACE and increasing the chances that future releases will deliver promised capabilities on time and within budget, we recommend that the Secretary of Homeland Security, through the Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security and the CBP Commissioner, direct the CBP Chief Information Officer to take the following actions: * Ensure the independence of its IV&V agent. * Ensure that future expenditure plans are based on cost estimates that are reconciled with independent cost estimates. * Reconsider the ACE acquisition schedule and cost estimates in light of early release problems, including these early releases' cascading effects on future releases and their relatively small size compared with later releases and in light of the need to avoid the past levels of concurrency among activities within and between releases. * Define measures, and collect and use associated metrics, for determining whether prior and future program management improvements are successful. * Report quarterly to the House and Senate Committees on Appropriations on efforts to address the above, as well as on our previous but unaddressed recommendations. Agency Comments and Our Evaluation: In written comments on a draft of this report signed by the director, DHS Bankcard Programs and GAO/OIG Liaison, DHS concurred with our recommendations and stated actions that it is taking or plans to take to implement each. DHS also provided recommendations for disclosing certain sensitive information included in our draft report. We modified this report in accordance with DHS's recommendations. DHS's comments are reprinted in appendix II. : We are sending copies of this report to the Chairmen and Ranking Minority Members of other Senate and House committees and subcommittees that have authorization and oversight responsibilities for homeland security. We are also sending copies to the Secretary of Homeland Security, the Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security, the CBP Commissioner, and the Director of OMB. In addition, the report will be available at no charge on the GAO Web site at [Hyperlink, http: //www.gao.gov]. Should you or your offices have any questions on matters discussed in this report, please contact me at (202) 512-3439 or by e-mail at [Hyperlink, hiter@gao.gov]. Other contacts and key contributors to this report are listed in appendix III. Signed by: Randolph C. Hite: Director, Information Technology Architecture and Systems Issues: [End of section] Appendixes: Appendix I: IT: Early Releases of Customs Trade System Operating, but Pattern of Cost and Schedule Problems Needs to Be Addressed: [See PDF for image] [End of figure] [End of section] Appendix II: Comments from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security: U.S. Department of Homeland Security Washington, DC 20528: Homeland Security: DATE: April 30, 2004: MEMORANDUM FOR RANDOLPH C. HITE: U.S. GENERAL ACCOUNTING OFFICE: FROM: Anna F. Dixon: Director, Bankcard Programs and GAO/OIG Liaison: SUBJECT: General Accounting Office (GAO) Draft Report: Information Technology: Early Releases of Customs Trade System Operating, but Pattern of Cost and Schedule Problems Needs to be Addressed (GAO-04- 587): Thank you for providing us with a copy of your draft report and the opportunity to discuss the issues in this report. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) either has underway or has completed actions responsive to the recommendations in the report. Responses to the specific recommendations are included as Attachment 1. Additionally, it is CBP's recommendation that specific budget line item amounts contained in the Fiscal Year 2004 Modernization Expenditure Plan be excluded from the final version of the GAO report. Continuing to report the total expenditure plan funding amount (318M) is acceptable and does not impact upcoming contract negotiations. Specific edits to the draft GAO report to resolve this issue are included as Attachment 2. If you have any questions regarding these comments, please contact Ms. Michele Donahue at (202) 927-0957. Signed for: Anna F. Dixon: Director, Bankcard Programs and GAO/OIG Liaison: Attachments as stated: Attachment 1: U.S. Customs Service General Accounting Office (GAO) Review of Fifth Automated Commercial Environment (ACE) Expenditure Plan: To assist CBP in managing ACE and increasing the chances that future releases will deliver promised capabilities on time and within budget, we recommend that the DHS Secretary, through the Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security and the CBP Commissioner, direct the CBP CIO to: Recommendation 1: Ensure the independence of its IV&V agent: Response: CBP will address GAO's concern about the independence of its IV&V agent by clarifying that management and financial oversight of the agent is separate from the Customs and Border Protection Modernization Office (CBPMO) and rests with the Special Assistant for Audit and Quality Management. Milestone Date: May 31, 2004: Recommendation 2: Ensure that future expenditure plans are based on cost estimates that are reconciled with independent cost estimates. Response: The CBPMO's Expenditure Plan Development and Approval Process has been updated to reflect a more significant role for CBPMO's independent cost estimating (ICE) contractor. The ICE contractor will be actively involved in the development process and will be the primary source of cost, schedule and risk input. Milestone Date: July 1, 2004: Recommendation 3: Reconsider the ACE acquisition schedule and cost estimates in light of early release problems, including these early releases' cascading effects on future releases and their relatively small size compared to later releases, and in light of the need to avoid the past levels of concurrency among activities within and between releases. Response: CBP will respond to this recommendation through the current effort to develop the next ACE program plan. Milestone Date: July 31, 2004: Recommendation 4: Define measures, and collect and use associated metrics, for determining whether prior and future program management improvements are successful. Response: CBP has taken recent steps responsive to this recommendation. CBPMO has developed a metrics plan that is currently undergoing final review. This plan draws upon measures that have been used as well as incorporating new metrics into a balanced scorecard to enable analysis within CBP and with eCP regarding program performance trends. Milestone Date: May 15, 2004 for final plan approval: Recommendation 5: Report quarterly to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees on efforts to address the above, as well as our previously made but still open recommendations. Response: CBP will respond to this recommendation by continuing its practice of incorporating status reports on its progress addressing GAO open recommendations in its quarterly reports to the Appropriations and Authorization Committees. Milestone Date: Considered closed based upon prior congressional reports. ATTACHMENT 2: Pages 29 and 84 of the draft GAO report contain specific budget information that, if published, could weaken the government's negotiating position in a number of upcoming contract actions that total approximately $60 million. The CBP recommends removing the detailed budget line data as illustrated in the modified versions of pages 29 and 84 below and adding the appropriate disclaimer in the footnote of each page. Summary of Expenditure Plan Funding: [See PDF for image] [End of figure] [End of section] Appendix III: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments: GAO Contact: Mark Bird, (202) 512-6260: Staff Acknowledgments: In addition to the person named above, Barbara Collier, Bill Cook, Neil Doherty, Scott Farrow, Michael P. Fruitman, Tamra Goldstein, Neela Lakhmani, and Freda Paintsil made key contributions to this report. (310282): FOOTNOTES [1] P.L. 108-90 (October 1, 2003). [2] An enterprise architecture is an institutional blueprint for guiding and constraining investments in business process change and systems. [3] In June 2003, the Department of the Treasury's Office of Inspector General (OIG) issued a report on the ACE program's contract, concluding that the former Customs Service, now CBP, did not fully comply with Federal Acquisition Regulation requirements in the solicitation and award of the contract. CBP disagrees with the Treasury OIG conclusion. To resolve the disagreement, DHS asked us to render a formal decision. We are currently reviewing the matter. [4] SEI's institutional and project-specific estimating guidelines are defined in Robert E. Park, Checklists and Criteria for Evaluating the Cost and Schedule Estimating Capabilities of Software Organizations, CMU/SEI-95-SR-005 (Pittsburgh, Pa.: Carnegie Mellon University Software Engineering Institute, 1995) and A Manager's Checklist for Validating Software Cost and Schedule Estimates, CMU/SEI-95-SR-004 (Pittsburg, Pa: 1995), respectively. [5] Capability Maturity Model (CMM) is a service mark of Carnegie Mellon University, and CMM is registered in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. The SA-CMM identifies key process areas that are necessary to effectively manage software-intensive system acquisitions. Level 2 is the second level of the SA-CMM's five-level scale; achieving this level means that an organization has the software acquisition rigor and discipline to repeat project successes. [6] IV&V involves having an independent organization conduct unbiased reviews of management processes, products, and results with the goal of verifying and validating that these meet stated requirements and standards. [7] US-VISIT is a governmentwide program to collect, maintain, and share information on foreign nationals in order to enhance national security and facilitate legitimate trade and travel while adhering to U.S. privacy laws and policies. [8] Our March 8, 2004, briefing to the staffs of the Subcommittees on Homeland Security, Senate and House Committees on Appropriations, reported a $23.3 million overrun for Releases 1 and 2 in addition to a $36.2 million overrun for Releases 3 and 4. Subsequently, CBP's ACE development contractor revised the estimated overrun for Releases 3 and 4 to $46 million. GAO's Mission: The General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, exists to support Congress in meeting its constitutional responsibilities and to help improve the performance and accountability of the federal government for the American people. GAO examines the use of public funds; evaluates federal programs and policies; and provides analyses, recommendations, and other assistance to help Congress make informed oversight, policy, and funding decisions. GAO's commitment to good government is reflected in its core values of accountability, integrity, and reliability. Obtaining Copies of GAO Reports and Testimony: The fastest and easiest way to obtain copies of GAO documents at no cost is through the Internet. GAO's Web site ( www.gao.gov ) contains abstracts and full-text files of current reports and testimony and an expanding archive of older products. 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