To accomplish its goal, USCIS began an Integrated Digitization Document Management Program (IDDMP) and is in the process of awarding five contracts for a pilot program. Funds for that project had to be allocated before last September or they would have expired, according to the GAO report.

The GAO review, which was issued internally on March 31 to DHS and publicly on April 30, was conducted between last August and this past February.

The report does credit USCIS with a recent decision to re-examine its long-term digitization efforts as part of an agency-wide transformation initiative, but the GAO said USCIS continues to lack focus because it hasn't yet fully documented the larger transformation initiative.

The lack of project planning was raised in December during a project workshop by one of the vendors involved in the program, according to the GAO report.

"Discussion points during this workshop included IDDMP's lack of a clear vision and business objectives, critical gaps in the digitization approach, confusion regarding terminology and roles and responsibilities, and the lack of a management plan," the GAO said. "Restated, this means that large sums of resources are being invested, and much larger sums are likely to be invested, on a program that lacks plans for ensuring that the resources are invested effectively and that resource estimates are valid."