FBI FLUNKS COMPUTER UPGRADING: [Broward Metro Edition]

Abstract

"It's immensely disappointing to learn of this type of failure," Lee Hamilton, the vice chairman of the Sept. 11 commission, said. "The FBI cannot share information and manage their cases effectively without a top-flight computer system, and we on the commission got assurances again and again from the FBI that they were getting on top of this problem. It's very, very disappointing to see that they're not."

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is on the verge of scrapping a $170 million computer overhaul that is considered critical to the campaign against terrorism but has been riddled with technical and planning problems, FBI officials said Thursday.

In a last-ditch effort to save the program, the bureau has hired a research firm at a cost of $2 million to evaluate the mounting problems in creating a "paperless" work system and to determine whether any parts of the project can be salvaged, officials said. One idea under strong consideration is for the bureau to use off- the-shelf software instead of the expensive customized features that the agency has unsuccessfully sought to develop.

The developments represent a major setback for the FBI in a decade-long struggle to escape a paper-driven culture and replace antiquated computer systems that have hobbled counterterrorism and criminal investigations. Robert S. Mueller III, the bureau's director, along with members of the Sept. 11 commission and other national security experts, has pointed to the success of that effort as critical to the nation's domestic security.

"It's immensely disappointing to learn of this type of failure," Lee Hamilton, the vice chairman of the Sept. 11 commission, said. "The FBI cannot share information and manage their cases effectively without a top-flight computer system, and we on the commission got assurances again and again from the FBI that they were getting on top of this problem. It's very, very disappointing to see that they're not."

Among other problems, officials blame technical and financial missteps, a rapid turnover among the bureau's information- technology personnel, difficulties in developing a system that is both secure and accessible to investigators, and, perhaps most critical, a cultural resistance among some veteran agents who favor pens and pads over computers.

"I am frustrated by the delays," Mueller said Thursday in Birmingham, Ala., according to The Associated Press. "I am frustrated that we do not have on every agent's desk the capability of a modern case-management system."

The bureau said that it has made some significant inroads in the past few years in overhauling its computer capabilities, with the installation of 30,000 new desktop computers and the development of a secure, high-speed network.

But the FBI's "virtual case file" system, the last in a three- part computer upgrade totaling more than half a billion dollars, has proven the most difficult. The system was designed to give the bureau's nearly 12,000 agents throughout the country instant access to all the needed information in the bureau's databases.

But the project is over budget and behind schedule, and FBI officials acknowledged Thursday that they were uncertain whether it will ever be completed because of planning, contracting and logistical problems. Only about 10 percent of the project is now in use, officials said.