/politics
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Just days before the sixth anniversary of September 11, congressional auditors are giving mixed grades to the Department of Homeland Security on its efforts to unify 22 agencies into one department and other goals.
The GAO said the DHS made substantial progress in maritime security, the only area that received the grade.
The 320-page report from the Government Accountability Office, which will be presented to Congress on Thursday, finds that the DHS has made progress in many areas, but has failed at major management functions.
The DHS was created in 2003 by the Bush administration following the 9/11 attacks "to provide the unifying core for the vast national network of organizations and institutions involved in efforts to secure our nation."
The report compiles other studies by GAO, the non-partisan research arm of Congress, and contains detailed analysis of the DHS's progress in meeting 171 performance goals.
Although DHS has been developing programs in its mission areas, such as protecting the U.S. border, it has had trouble putting them into action, the accountability office report says.
"Given DHS's leading role in securing the homeland, it is critical that the department's mission and management programs operate as efficiently and effectively as possible," Comptroller General David M. Walker wrote in remarks prepared for delivery Thursday to Congress.
In 38 pages of the report, the DHS refutes the GOA's conclusions.
The homeland security department says the GAO used a "flaw methodology" for review and disagreed with 42 of the 171 goal assessments.
The GAO gave its highest grades to the DHS for maritime security, an area in which DHS made "substantial progress." It gave its lowest grade -- "limited progress" -- to emergency preparedness and response, science and technology, human capital management, and information technology management.
The grades or scores are "not indicative of the extent to which DHS's actions have made the nation more secure," the GAO said.
Members of Congress expressed disappointment with DHS's progress.
"The Department of Homeland Security must pick up the pace of its progress," said Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee. "With so much at stake and so many areas where progress is still required, America cannot settle for a mixed report card."
Of the 171 performance expectations, the DHS had "generally achieved" 78 and "generally not achieved" 83. No determination was made on 10.
As an example, the report says DHS generally achieved its goal of developing a program to allow authorized pilots to carry firearms on flights -- but it had "generally not achieved" a plan to develop and deploy technologies to screen air cargo.
The DHS said the "achieved-not achieved" system the GAO uses was "ill-equipped" to evaluate progress. For example, the DHS said, a project to increase border security was said to be "generally not achieved," even though the GOA officials indicated that the multiyear program was "on a trajectory" toward achievement.
DHS also complained that the GAO treated all goals as if they were of equal importance, but they are not.
Here is a breakdown of the report card:
Substantial progress
Moderate progress
Modest progress:
Limited progress:
All About U.S. Department of Homeland Security • U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs • U.S. House Committee on Homeland Security • Transportation Security
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