"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.