GAO urges DoD to address discrepancies in biometric, forensic systems regulation efforts

The Government Accountability Office (GOA) has called on the Department of Defense (DoD) to address discrepancies in their efforts to regulate its biometric and forensic systems, according to a report by Executive Gov.

In a report released earlier this week, GAO stated that while DoD has implemented certain measures to meet long-term requirements for deployable biometric and forensic platforms, it continues to be plagued with strategic planning and acquisition management issues.

GAO auditors discovered in its investigation that while the department implemented a forensic strategic plan, it has failed to establish a detailed plan for biometric systems. To make things worse, the DoD hasn’t even assigned an entity to develop such plan.

In addition, the auditors found that the U.S. Army did not comply with the department’s acquisition protocols in the development of a key biometric platform, which could have potentially averted the service branch from using existing, viable and affordable options.

The report said that the department’s biometric database that helps it identify enemies and terrorists failed to have a remotely located backup to support the database’s availability and prevent threats such as natural hazards.

Overall, the report recommended the Defense Department to update its biometric enterprise strategic plan, implement a geographically dispersed biometric database backup, and improve the management of biometric systems acquisition.

Article Topics

biometrics  |  Department of Defense  |  forensics  |  Government Accountability Office