A report issued by the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Inspector General (OIG) entitled DHS’s Oversight of Interoperable Communications details an audit undertaken by the OIG to investigate the $430 million invested by the Department in equipment, infrastructure, and maintenance to meet communication requirements. The audit was “to determine whether DHS’s oversight ensured achievement of Department-wide interoperable radio communications.”

The report’s findings reveal that the Department “did not provide effective oversight” to meet the Department-wide goals and objectives. Additionally, no effective governing structure was put in place to facilitate successful achievement of the key goal of Department-wide interoperability. The report’s Executive Summary notes that “only 1 of 479 radio users tested could access and communicate using the specified common channel. Further, of the 382 radios tested, only 20 percent (78) contained all the correct program settings for the common channel.”

The OIG report included two recommendations. The first, that the Department create a structure with the necessary authority to ensure that the components achieve interoperability, was rejected by the Department because the “existing structure has the necessary authority.” The second OIG recommendation that the Department “develop and disseminate policies and procedures to standardize Department-wide radio activities, including program settings such as naming convention to ensure interoperability,” was accepted by the Department.

In the account published by Pro Publica on the report, they noted that “Jim Crumpacker, the Department of Homeland Security’s liaison between the Government Accountability Office and the inspector general,” in a response letter to the report, “wrote that DHS had made significant strides in improving emergency communications since 2003. But he acknowledged that DHS has had some challenges in achieving Department-wide interoperable communications goals.”