U.S. Customs Service

Office of Investigations Case Management Problems Gao ID: GGD-99-121 July 20, 1999

GAO reviewed whether the U.S. Customs Service Office of Investigations follows its case management policies and procedures. GAO visited the Special Agent in Charge Offices in New York and Chicago and found that many agents were not entering statistics into the electronic management database as required. Moreover, many first-line supervisors were not providing evidence of investigative case file quarterly reviews. Most agents were not completing opening reports of investigations within 10 days after an investigation was initiated, as required. Also, some investigative files that GAO requested could not be located. Since 1995, Customs' Office of Internal Affairs, Management Inspection Division has repeatedly reported these same findings. However, the Division routinely did not summarize the case management problems or recommend ways for the Office of Investigations to correct the problems.

GAO noted that: (1) in the New York and Chicago SAC offices, many agents were not entering statistics, such as arrests, seizures, and convictions, in the electronic management database as required by Customs' policies and procedures; (2) further, many first-line supervisors were not providing evidence of investigative case file quarterly reviews; (3) most agents were not completing opening reports of investigation within 10 days after an investigation was initiated as required; (4) also, some investigative case files that GAO requested could not be located; (5) since 1995, Customs' Office of Internal Affairs, Management Inspection Division (MID) reported these same findings repeatedly in their reports examining individual offices; and (6) however, MID did not routinely summarize the case management problems or make recommendations on how OI should correct the problems agencywide and prevent them from happening in the future.

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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