Working to Stop Wasteful Spending at the FBI

The FBI has wasted hundreds of millions of dollars on a computer systems upgrade, and I’m working to stop the FBI from throwing away more taxpayer money.

I’ve been on FBI Director Robert Mueller’s case to account for the mismanagement of this effort at the FBI, and I recently questioned him about it face-to-face, during an oversight hearing of the Judiciary Committee.

The latest iteration of the case-management system that the FBI is trying to upgrade is called Sentinel.  Sentinel follows the failed Virtual Case File system, which cost taxpayers $100 million and never resulted in a useable system.   

Sentinel was announced in March 2006.  It was originally a $425 million contract with Lockheed Martin that was supposed to be finished in December 2009.  However, delays and cost overruns have increased the projected cost to $451 million and the completion date, for only the first two of four phases, to September 2010.  Now even that’s in jeopardy. 

In March 2010, I wrote to the FBI Director asking a number of questions about this development and what the delay would do to the final timeline and cost of the project.  The FBI never provided a straight answer and only responded to some of my questions. 

Following my letter, the Inspector General for the Department of Justice said the FBI doesn’t even have official cost or schedule estimates for the completion of Sentinel.  The Inspector General said it will cost more and not be finished until next year. 

In July 2010, I wrote for a second time to FBI Director Mueller because the FBI issued a new stop-work order to Lockheed Martin extending a previous stop-work order.  While I appreciate the FBI cutting off work on a project before it completely fails, it appears that the FBI and Lockheed Martin are not going to be able to complete Sentinel anytime in the near future.  Further, it appears that completing this project will cost millions more taxpayer dollars.

The FBI and Lockheed Martin are at a crossroads on the Sentinel project.  Director Mueller must take ownership of this project which has spiraled out of control and off budget.   The director must provide answers to a number of questions and not simply provide the standard bureaucratic answers if he wants to regain the trust of Congress on Sentinel.

The FBI needs to be held accountable to the public it serves.  I’ll continue working for answers and information.

The March 2010 letter is available here.

The July 2010 letter is available here.

A New York Times article about this topic is available here.