NCJ Number
144304
Date Published
1992
Length
158 pages
Annotation
The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) undertook a general management review of the U.S. Customs Service to determine if the agency effectively fulfills its trade enforcement mission by combatting unfair foreign trade practices and protecting the U.S. public from unsafe foreign goods.
Abstract
The GAO found that, despite its plans to increase reliance on automation to process customs transactions, Customs currently cannot ensure that it is meeting these responsibilities because of a number of interrelated problems in the agency's management culture. The problems specifically identified in this report include questionable effectiveness of enforcement efforts, a lack of strategic operational direction, ineffective information resources management which hampers mission accomplishment, insufficient attention given to human resource management, an organizational structure that complicates Customs' mission, and overall management problems that threaten the transition to an electronic environment. GAO's recommendations fall under two primary categories: institution of a strategic management process that sets mission priorities, establishes measurable performance objectives, and monitors progress toward achieving them; and evaluation of the adequacy of the agency's current headquarters organizational structure to support the new trade enforcement strategy. 6 tables, 7 figures, and 5 appendixes