In the 112-page report, Inspector General Glenn Fine said the FBI has made progress in addressing problems associated with the development of the system by pursuing plans for the independent verification and validation of the software to ensure that it will operate as intended and by developing information-sharing capabilities.
However, questions still remain about funding the system as well as the FBI's lack of contingency plans for identified project risks, according to the report entitled "Sentinel Audit II: Status of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Case Management System."
However, in response, the FBI said the Sentinel is "within cost and schedule."
"We found that the FBI faces uncertainty over the source of the approximately US$150 million the FBI says it needs in fiscal year 2007 to continue the Sentinel project," Fine said in the report. "The president's [fiscal] 2007 budget request includes $100 million for Sentinel, and the FBI would need an additional $56.7 million to bridge the gap between the requested funds and its FY 2007 requirements for Sentinel."
The inspector general said the FBI expects to have about $50 million remaining from the first phase of Sentinel and will use unspent prior-year balances from other sources to make up the gap. However, taking money from other FBI programs could erode the FBI's mission capability in counterterrorism, cybercrime and other important operational areas, according to the report.
"Therefore, until the funding issues are addressed, we remain concerned about the impact that reprogramming significant amounts of non-IT funds to support Sentinel would have on other critical FBI priorities," Fine said. Certain portions of the report were blotted out because the FBI considered the information sensitive and proprietary, he said.
The Sentinel project, which uses commercial off-the-shelf components, is intended to provide the FBI with an electronic information management system, automated workflow processes, search capabilities and information sharing ability with other law enforcement agencies and the intelligence community.
The Sentinel project comes after the FBI's unsuccessful three-year, $170 million effort to develop a modern investigative case management system called the Virtual Case File (VCF) as part of its Trilogy IT modernization project. The VCF, and now Sentinel, was intended to provide the FBI with an up-to-date system so that the obsolete Automated Case Support system could be retired.
Earlier this year, the FBI awarded a contract to Lockheed Martin Services Inc. to develop the Sentinel information and investigative case management system in four phases. The cost was $305 million, and the FBI estimated that it would cost $120 million more to provide contractor support and to staff the FBI's Sentinel Program Office. The total estimated cost of Sentinel is $425 million. The initial schedule for the Lockheed Martin contract calls for all phases to be completed in December 2009.
The inspector general recommended that the FBI periodically update the total project cost estimate as actual cost figures become available and to complete contingency plans as required by the Sentinel Risk Management Plan.
In written comments, the FBI said it agreed with the recommendations and is working to implement them.
"According to the audit, the FBI has made 'good progress' in addressing the concerns surrounding staffing, information sharing, earned value management, cost tracking and controls, and documentation that were identified in the first audit report," the FBI said in a statement.
"Phase II of the Sentinel program is expected to cost approximately $157 million. As part of the President's FY 2007 budget request, $100 million in funding was requested. The balance of $57 million has long been identified from existing FBI balances and will not impact operational programs. The total project cost for Sentinel was budgeted at a cost of $425 million and that figure remains the same. Characterizations to the contrary are misleading. At this time, Sentinel is within cost and schedule."