Customs Performance Measures

GAO provided information on performance indicators currently available to assess the performance of various Customs Service functions. GAO found that: (1) Customs has focused on two major efforts to develop performance indicators for various functions related to commercial operations, inspections and controls at the district level, and enforcement at all operational levels; (2) Customs' overview reports could be more effective if Customs provided a more direct linkage between financial statements and assessments of how well it performs its mission; (3) linking Customs performance indicators to its mission and objectives would tie financial and program data together; and (4) Customs needs to clarify its quality-of-service requirements, address how auditing changes would measure performance, and conduct customer surveys and followups on operations.